This does not surprise me but it ought to cause alarm in anybody concerned for the future of our country (ref the USA here but this likely applies to many others as well). I saw something earlier this morning about how the average testosterone in a young man is now what it used to be in a man of 67, which is a separate thing, but kind of on the same line: we are culturally harming people food-wise so that even when they are young, a shocking number of them are not actually healthy – even though “they aren’t fat” so they look like they’re ok from the outside.
Among 6247 young adults 18 to 44 years of age, the prevalence of IR was 44.8% (95% CI: 42.0%-47.6%) in 2007-2010 and 40.3% (95% CI: 36.4%-44.2%) in 2015-2018 (P for trend = 0.07). There was a modest association of HOMA-IR with higher body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, total lean fat mass, and total and localized fat mass (all Ps < 0.001). Participants with IR had a higher prevalence of hypertension [31.3% (95% CI: 29.2%-33.5%) vs 14.7% (95% CI: 13.2%-16.2%)], hypercholesterolemia [16.0% (95% CI: 12.4%-19.5%) vs 7.0% (95% CI: 5.8%-8.5%)], obesity [56.6% (95% CI: 53.9%-59.3%) vs 14.7% (95% CI: 13.0%-16.5%)], and poor physical activity levels [18.3% (95% CI: 16.4%-20.2%) vs 11.7% (95%CI: 10.3–13.1%)] compared to participants without IR (all Ps < 0.05). Conclusions Four-in-10 young American adults have IR, which occurs in a cluster with cardiometabolic risk factors. Nearly half of young adults with IR are nonobese.