The number of U.S children who take medications for chronic diseases is growing dramatically, a new study published in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics shows.

The number of children who take medications for type 2 diabetes, the form that is related to obesity, increased by 103 percent between 2002-2005. The percentage was higher among girls (up 147 percent) compared with boys (up 38.7 percent).

The use of medications for asthma and obesity has also increased. Those for asthma increased 46.5 percent, while those for attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity increased 40 percent and were more prevalent among boys than girls.

The findings were based on prescription claim data of nearly 4 million children a year, ages 5 to 19, from 2002 to 2005. All the participants were covered by Express Scripts. Researchers at Express Scripts, St. Louis University and Kansas Health Institute looked at the use of medications to treat hypertension, high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes, depression, ADD/ADHD and asthma in insured children ages 5 to 19.

The study’s results also show that girls have been taking more hypertension medication than boys, even though boys are more exposed to this kind of condition. Possible explanations may include the higher rate of doctor visits by teenage girls compared with teenage boys.

The positive message of the study is that doctors are using more medications, which may also mean a better detection of disease. If the diseases are diagnosed in their early stages, there are more chances for a complete recovery.

“Prevalence of chronic medication use in children increased across all therapy classes evaluated,” the study’s authors concluded.

Doctors advise families to improve their lifestyle and diets by eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, giving up unhealthy food, such as fast food products, food rich in salt, sodas.

Reports released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that more than a quarter of all Americans tend to be obese. The percentage between 2005 and 2007 grew with about 2 percent.

This is considered to be a big problem because the South of the U.S., which has the highest rates of obesity, also has high death rates from stroke and heart disease that have easily been linked to obesity. The diet that most southern residents use is high in fat and fried food; poverty in some states makes people buy cheaper food, but they forget that this food is calorie heavy.

According to a recent report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 90 percent of diabetes are type 2, the form directly linked to obesity.

Emily Cox, senior director of research with Express Scripts and co-author of the study said that type 2 diabetes was once known as adult onset, but the results show that kids as young as 5 are being treated with prescription diabetes drugs. Some complications of type 2 diabetes include: heart disease (cardiovascular disease), blindness (retinopathy), nerve damage (neuropathy), and kidney damage (nephropathy).