Britain is losing more young people to diabetes than the average for western Europe, reseachers say.
Death rates in boys and men aged 15 to 24 have almost doubled since 2000 and appear to be overtaking even the United States, a study has found.
Dozens of children die each year and rates are “high and rising” compared with other EU countries, according to researchers at the Institute of Child Health at University College London.
Deaths in younger children are falling across Europe and British rates are average for western Europe. However, in older children a gap has opened in the past 20 years, with Britain now doing markedly worse than other EU countries, a Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health conference was told yesterday.