Agrawal R, Bhandarkar A, Kapoor N. Diabetes in adolescents without obesity in India: An underrecognized phenotype. World J Clin Pediatr 2025; 14(4): 110032 [DOI: 10.5409/wjcp.v14.i4.110032]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Nitin Kapoor, DM, MD, PhD, Full Professor, Head, Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Ida Scudder Road, Vellore 632004, Tamil Nadu, India. nitin.kapoor@cmcvellore.ac.in
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Endocrinology & Metabolism
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Letter to the Editor
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This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Dec 9, 2025 (publication date) through Oct 31, 2025
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World Journal of Clinical Pediatrics
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Agrawal R, Bhandarkar A, Kapoor N. Diabetes in adolescents without obesity in India: An underrecognized phenotype. World J Clin Pediatr 2025; 14(4): 110032 [DOI: 10.5409/wjcp.v14.i4.110032]
World J Clin Pediatr. Dec 9, 2025; 14(4): 110032 Published online Dec 9, 2025. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v14.i4.110032
Diabetes in adolescents without obesity in India: An underrecognized phenotype
Rashi Agrawal, Akhila Bhandarkar, Nitin Kapoor
Rashi Agrawal, Department of Endocrinology, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Navi Mumbai, Mumbai 400053, Mahārāshtra, India
Akhila Bhandarkar, Department of Endocrinology, K. S. Hegde Medical Academy, Mangalore 575018, Karnātaka, India
Nitin Kapoor, Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Christian Medical College, Vellore 632004, Tamil Nadu, India
Nitin Kapoor, NCD Unit, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne 3004, Victoria, Australia
Co-first authors: Rashi Agrawal and Akhila Bhandarkar.
Author contributions: Kapoor N conceptualized the letter and identified the key observations from the study; Agrawal R and Bhandarkar A conducted the literature review and jointly drafted the manuscript; Kapoor N and Bhandarkar A critically revised the letter; all three authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Nitin Kapoor, DM, MD, PhD, Full Professor, Head, Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Ida Scudder Road, Vellore 632004, Tamil Nadu, India. nitin.kapoor@cmcvellore.ac.in
Received: May 28, 2025 Revised: June 17, 2025 Accepted: August 6, 2025 Published online: December 9, 2025 Processing time: 157 Days and 0.3 Hours
Abstract
Adolescent type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is on the rise in India and is commonly attributed to co-existence of overweight and obesity in adolescents. In this line, a study by Maheshwari et al titled ‘Prevalence of obesity, determinants, and its association with hyperglycaemia among community dwelling older adolescents in India’ concluded that overweight, obesity, socioeconomic factors and higher education status were responsible for hyperglycemia in adolescents aged 15-19 years in India. We highlight that there is a significant prevalence of T2DM even in normal body mass index (BMI) and below normal BMI subjects, as mentioned in their study. There is a high prevalence of normal weight obesity in Indian adolescents which often gets missed due to a large population with normal BMI in the country. In this letter, we analyze the importance of measurement of central adiposity beyond routine BMI measurements.
Core Tip: Normal weight obesity in adolescents can be a hidden risk factor for cardiometabolic diseases, emphasizing the need for healthcare professionals to assess body composition, beyond body mass index, to identify and manage this under-recognized entity effectively.
