Doctors 'wrong to assume type 1 diabetes is childhood illness'

Nearly 50% of cases occur in adulthood, but many doctors assume adults with diabetes symptoms have type 2, leading to potentially dangerous misdiagnosis

Doctors are wrong to assume that type 1 diabetes mainly affects children, according to a new study that shows it is equally prevalent in adults.

The findings, published in the journal Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, overturn previous thinking that the form of diabetes, an auto-immune condition, is primarily a childhood illness. Scientists from Exeter University found that in a lot of cases it was actually misdiagnosed among adults.