Correlates of Treatment Patterns Among Youth With Type 2 Diabetes OBJECTIVE

To describe treatment regimens in youth with type 2 diabetes and examine associations between regimens, demographic and clinical characteristics, and glycemic control. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This report includes 474 youth with a clinical diagnosis of type 2 diabetes who completed a SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study visit. Diabetes treatment regi-men was categorized as lifestyle alone, metformin monotherapy, any oral hypo-glycemic agent (OHA) other than metformin or two or more OHAs, insulin monotherapy, and insulin plus any OHA(s). Association of treatment with demo-graphic and clinical characteristics (fasting C-peptide [FCP], diabetes duration, and self-monitoring of blood glucose [SMBG]), and A1C was assessed by x2 and ANOVA. Multiple linear regression models were used to evaluate independent associations of treatment regimens and A1C, adjusting for demographics, diabe-tes duration, FCP, and SMBG. RESULTS Over 50 % of participants reported treatment with metformin alone or lifestyle. Of the autoantibody-negative youth, 40%were on metformin alone, while 33 % were on insulin-containing regimens. Participants on metformin alone had a lower A1C (7.06 2.0%, 536 22mmol/mol) than those on insulin alone (9.26 2.7%, 776 30 mmol/mol) or insulin plus OHA (8.6 6 2.6%, 70 6 28 mmol/mol) (P < 0.001). These differences remained significant after adjustment (7.5 6 0.3%, 58 6