Otisville Elementary School’s annual diabetes awareness campaign concluded with a school-wide walk to raise funds for its own students living with diabetes.

Although the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) recently discontinued its school programming, school officials decided to develop and implement its own type 1 diabetes education program and awareness walk.

During the K-5 assemblies held to further educate students about this disease, students learned about the importance of a healthy diet and physical activity in preventing diabetes in addition to some basic biology about the role of the pancreas.

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease that occurs when a person’s pancreas stops producing insulin, the hormone that controls blood-sugar levels. T1D develops when the insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells are mistakenly destroyed by the body’s immune system.

The cause of this attack is still being researched, however scientists believe the cause may have genetic and environmental components.

Here’s some juvenile diabetes statistics, courtesy of JDRF.

• Some 1.25 million Americans are living with T1D, including about 200,000 youth (less than 20 years old) and more than 1 million adults
• (20 years old and older). 40,000 people are diagnosed each year in the U.S.
•  5 million people in the U.S. are expected to have T1D by 2050, including nearly 600,000 youth.
•   Between 2001 and 2009, there was a 21 percent increase in the prevalence of T1D in people under age 20.3
•   In the U.S., there are $14 billion in T1D-associated healthcare expenditures and lost income annually.
•  Less than one-third of people with T1D in the U.S. are consistently achieving target blood-glucose control levels.