Author Correction: Linking pediatric obesity to youth-onset type 2 diabetes: integrated longitudinal and cross-sectional evidence from population-based studies worldwide

Article information

Clin Exp Pediatr. 2026;69(11):925-926

Publication date (electronic) : 2026 October 22

doi : https://doi.org/10.3345/cep.2026.01228.e1

Ashraf T. Soliman, MD, PhD , Fawzia Alyafei, MD , Nada Alaaraj, MD , Noor Hamed, MD , Shayma Mohamed, MD , Ahmed Elawwa, MD

Division of Endocrinology, Department of Pediatrics, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar

This corrects the article "Linking pediatric obesity to youth-onset type 2 diabetes: integrated longitudinal and cross-sectional evidence from population-based studies worldwide" in Volume 69 on page 622.

Clin Exp Pediatr 2026;69:622-35.

https://doi.org/10.3345/cep.2026.01228

To the Editor,

After publication, the authors identified that data for 5 registries in Table 1 (England & Wales, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan) had been extracted from a narrative review (ref. 14) rather than from the primary publications, and that the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) scores for these rows did not reflect appraisal of the primary reports. Each row has now been traced to, and appraised on, its primary source. This qualifies the Australian finding but does not change the article's overall conclusions. The following corrections apply.

Table 1.

Global longitudinal trends in pediatric obesity prevalence and youth-onset T2DM incidence by country/registry (corrected)

1. Abstract. The sentence “All registries showed a temporally parallel increase in the incidence of pediatric obesity and youth-onset T2DM.” should read “Most registries showed a temporally parallel increase in pediatric obesity and youth-onset T2DM incidence; national Australian data were the exception, showing stable incidence over 2002–03 to 2011–12.”

2. Introduction. The sentence “Contemporaneous trends have been documented in Canada,⁷⁾ England and Wales,⁸⁾ Israel,⁹⁾ Australia,¹⁰⁾ and New Zealand.¹¹⁾” should read “Contemporaneous trends have been documented in Canada,⁷⁾ the United Kingdom,^R1) Israel,^R2) Western Australia,^R4) and New Zealand.^R5)”

3. Methods, Quality assessment. The following text is added at the end of the section: “Registry estimates identified through secondary syntheses were extracted from and appraised on the original publication; secondary syntheses were not scored. For population-based incidence studies, the NOS cohort version was adapted: Selection (4 stars) assessed population representativeness, a same-population comparison group, secure ascertainment of the grouping variable, and inclusion of incident cases only; Comparability (2 stars) assessed stratification by age/sex and by ethnicity or another key factor; Outcome (3 stars) assessed diagnosis by recognized criteria, observation of at least 10 years, and verified completeness of case ascertainment.”

4. Results. In the description of Fig. 1, “England and Wales (NPDA), Israel, and Australia” should read “the UK (BPSU), Israel, and Western Australia, whereas Australian national incidence was stable over 2002–03 to 2011–12”.

5. Table 1. The rows for England & Wales, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, and the table footnote, are replaced as shown in the corrected Table 1 below.

6. Fig. 1. “England and Wales (NPDA)” is renamed “UK (BPSU)” and “Australia (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare)” is renamed “Australia (AIHW national; Western Australia registry)”; these 2 series are redrawn from R1, R3, and R4. The legend sentence “Co-temporal upward trends were observed in all five registries, consistent with pediatric obesity as the principal upstream driver of youth-onset T2DM.” should read “Incidence rose alongside obesity prevalence in the USA, Canada, Israel, and Western Australia; the UK 2015–2016 rate exceeded that of 2005 (IRR 1.35; 95% CI, 0.99–1.84), and Australian national incidence was stable over 2002–03 to 2011–12.” R1–R4 are added to the data sources.

7. Fig. 2. The bars are relabelled “UK – BPSU” and “Australia – Western Australia” and redrawn to the primary values (UK 81% obese, n=106 [R1]; Western Australia 61%, n=135 [R4]; Japan 87% with BMI ≥90th percentile, n=301 [R6]; Israel n=379 [R2], % obese [from R2]). R1, R2, R4, and R6 are added to the data sources.

8. References. References R1–R6 below are added to the reference list.

R1. Candler TP, Mahmoud O, Lynn RM, Majbar AA, Barrett TG, Shield JPH. Continuing rise of type 2 diabetes incidence in children and young people in the UK. Diabet Med 2018;35:737-44.

R2. Zuckerman Levin N, Cohen M, Phillip M, Tenenbaum A, Koren I, Tenenbaum-Rakover Y, et al. Youth-onset type 2 diabetes in Israel: a national cohort. Pediatr Diabetes 2022;23:649-59.

R3. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). Type 2 diabetes in Australia's children and young people: a working paper. Canberra (Australia): AIHW, 2014.

R4. Haynes A, Kalic R, Cooper M, Hewitt JK, Davis EA. Increasing incidence of type 2 diabetes in Indigenous and non- Indigenous children in Western Australia, 1990–2012. Med J Aust 2016;204:303.

R5. Sjardin N, Reed P, Albert B, Mouat F, Carter PJ, Hofman P, et al. Increasing incidence of type 2 diabetes in New Zealand children <15 years of age in a regional-based diabetes service, Auckland, New Zealand. J Paediatr Child Health 2018;54:1005-10.

R6. Urakami T, Miyata M, Yoshida K, Mine Y, Kuwabara R, Aoki M, et al. Changes in annual incidence of school children with type 2 diabetes in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area during 1975-2015. Pediatr Diabetes 2018;19:1385-92.

Supplementary Table 1 (item-level NOS appraisal of R1–R6) is added as online supplementary material. The authors apologize for these errors.

Supplementary materials

Supplementary Table S1.

Item-level Newcastle-Ottawa Scale appraisal of the primary sources in Table 1

cep-2026-01228-e1-Supplementary-Table-1.pdf

Article information Continued

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Table 1.

Global longitudinal trends in pediatric obesity prevalence and youth-onset T2DM incidence by country/registry (corrected)

Country/registry	Study period	Pediatric obesity trend	Youth T2DM incidence (per 100,000/yr)	Relative T2DM change	NOS	Reference
USA (SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth)	2002–2018	17.0%→>20.3% (national); highest in Black, Hispanic, American Indian youth	3.8→6.8 (age 10–19 yr)	+79%; 4.8%/yr annual rise	9/9	[2,3,5,6,26]
USA – T2DM prevalence (SEARCH)	2001–2017	Sustained >17% throughout; racial disparities persist	0.35→0.67 per 1,000 (prevalence)	+91% prevalence	9/9	[3]
Canada (Manitoba Registry)	2009–2018	Rising; First Nations obesity >10× non-Indigenous rates	16.0→~31.1 (First Nations ~10× higher)	+94% overall	8/9	[7,23]
UK (BPSU national surveillance)	2005 vs. 2015–2016	Moderate increase; socioeconomic deprivation gradient	0.72 (age <17 yr, 2015–2016); South Asian 2.92, Black 1.67, White 0.44	IRR 1.35 vs. 2005 (95% CI, 0.99–1.84); significant rise in girls and South Asian children	7/9	[R1,14]
Israel (national cohort)	2008–2019	Rising; predominantly Arab minority youth affected	0.63→3.41 (age 10–18 yr)	+441%	8/9	[R2,14]
Australia (AIHW national; Western Australia registry)	2002–03 to 2011–12 (national); 1990–2012 (WA)	Rising; Indigenous youth prevalence 2–3× non-Indigenous	National: ~3 (10–14 yr) and ~8 (15–19 yr); WA mean: 12.6 Indigenous vs. 0.6 non-Indigenous	National: stable; WA: +12.5 %/yr Indigenous, +10.9%/yr non-Indigenous	7/9 (R3); 8/9 (R4)	[R3,R4,25,14]
New Zealand (Auckland regional service)	1995–2015	Rising; Māori and Pacific youth disproportionately affected	1.5 overall (age <15 yr); Pacific 5.9, Māori 4.1	+5%/yr	7/9	[R5,14]
Japan (Tokyo school screening)	1975–2015	Rose then plateaued; correlates with fat intake increase	~2.6 (school urine screening program)	Historical rise then plateau	7/9	[R6,14]
Global estimate (Wu et al.)	2021 estimate	~8% obese (5–19 yr; NCD-RisC data)	~41,600 new cases/yr globally	-	High (AMSTAR-2)	[1,12]
USA projections (Tönnies et al.)	2017→2060 modeled	Minority youth: continued steep rise projected	T2DM cases to increase substantially by 2060	Fourfold+ under rising incidence scenario	High (AMSTAR-2)	[13]

T2DM, type 2 diabetes mellitus; NOS, Newcastle-Ottawa Scale; BPSU, British Paediatric Surveillance Unit; AIHW, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare; WA, Western Australia; IRR, incidence rate ratio; CI, confidence interval; NCD-RisC, NCD Risk Factor Collaboration; AMSTAR-2, A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews v2.

NOS scores were assigned by direct appraisal of the primary publication (Supplementary Table 1); Perng et al.14) is a supporting secondary source and was not scored.

Rows 4–8 (UK to Japan) are corrected.

New references cited in the table

R1. Candler TP, Mahmoud O, Lynn RM, Majbar AA, Barrett TG, Shield JPH. Continuing rise of type 2 diabetes incidence in children and young people in the UK. Diabet Med 2018;35:737-44.

R2. Zuckerman Levin N, Cohen M, Phillip M, Tenenbaum A, Koren I, Tenenbaum-Rakover Y, et al. Youth-onset type 2 diabetes in Israel: a national cohort. Pediatr Diabetes 2022;23:649-59.

R3. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Type 2 diabetes in Australia's children and young people: a working paper. Canberra (Australia): AIHW, 2014.

R4. Haynes A, Kalic R, Cooper M, Hewitt JK, Davis EA. Increasing incidence of type 2 diabetes in Indigenous and non-Indigenous children in Western Australia, 1990–2012. Med J Aust 2016;204:303.