Several formerly adults-only disorders are spilling over into younger age groups, raising fears of a first US generation in modern history to face a shorter life expectancy than its
parents.

Modern-day breakthroughs have dealt decisive blows to some of history's worst childhood scourges but seem to pack little punch against a new onslaught of health challengers, reports UPI.

Children are increasingly suffering from a range of neurobehavioral disturbances, obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes and other diseases.

"It is now estimated that one in three children born in 2000 will have diabetes in their lives - this makes it soon-to-be the most prevalent chronic disease," noted Francine Kaufman, professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

"(An) article in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that the life expectancy may have decreased a few years for the first time in two centuries due to childhood obesity," said Kaufman, also head of the Center for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

The controversial analysis, contested by critics as overly grim and scientifically shaky, said unless strategies succeed in slimming the swelling numbers of overweight youngsters, longevity gains will undergo a trimming of two to five years over the next half century.

While diseases like smallpox, polio, tetanus, diphtheria, rubella and mumps and other communicable diseases have been brought to heel, problems remain.

The American Heart Association published a special issue of its journal entirely devoted to the fallout on children in the US of obesity, which includes elevated risk for type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, obstructive sleep apnea, cholesterol disorders and an array of other medical problems.

"It's frightening to see these 14- and 15-year-olds who, in 20 years, will be facing blindness, lost kidneys or even death," said Joanne Ikeda, a nutritionist at the University of California, Berkeley.