Polygraph

Thirty-eight percent of teenagers in the United States have pre-diabetes.

Posted by The Joe Rogan Experience, Checked

Polygraph verdictFalse
Sources
5 contradict3 context
Said
1 time·
Confidence
60%
The Joe Rogan ExperienceNov 6, 2026
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149 claimsThe check →

The claim's 38% figure is not supported by any source. The CDC's 2023 estimate is about 32.7% of 12-17-year-olds, and NHANES 2021-2023 found 30.8% of 10-19-year-olds with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, so 38% sits above the authoritative estimates. The claim matches the post's wording and the extraction is faithful.

A detail. The sources confirm the gist; the verdict faults a detail such as a date, number or wording.

This claim is about the present, so it is judged as of the day it was checked.

What was said

… I mean, that is that is un unexcusable, that we're, you know, Coca cola is making, you know, 8 billion dollars, or whatever it is, from taxpayer money to give soda to kids who are then on Medicaid and bankrupt the system, and, like, 38% of teens have pre diabetes. I mean, it's, it's like so, so we got, let's see that 38% of teens in the United States have pre-diabetes. Holy shit. A mist dark. Holy shit, um, that's crazy. But for each of those things oh my God, 38% of kids have pre-diabetes. You're talking type 2 diabetes. Is sugar induced pre-diabetes? Pre-diabetes, yeah, pre type 2 diabetes. …
The Joe Rogan Experience · · from the transcriptPost →

What we found

Contradicts. The CDC's 2023 data, as reported by AP, ABC and STAT, put prediabetes among US 12-17-year-olds at about 1 in 3 (8.4 million, 32.7%), not 38%.[1][5][6]

Contradicts. The NHANES 2021-2023 analysis of US adolescents aged 10-19 found a weighted prediabetes or type 2 diabetes prevalence of 30.8%, with 30.5% for prediabetes alone, which is below 38%.[3][7]

Context. Earlier estimates were much lower: about 18% of 12-18-year-olds had prediabetes in 2005-2016 under the previous methodology, so the estimates depend heavily on the measure and method used.[2][4][8]

Context. No source reports a 38% figure for US teenagers with prediabetes, and the reported estimates range from about 18% to 33%.[1][3][4][8]

Sources

8 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 2 primary, 4 not rated

  1. 1Prediabetes in teens: CDC finds nearly 1 in 3 US youth have itapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: contradicts, context
  2. 2'Prediabetes' common in U.S. teens, young adultsreuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
  3. 3Prevalence and predictors of prediabetes/type 2 diabetes ...pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov · primary source · cited for: contradicts, context
  4. 4Diabetes Statistics - NIDDKniddk.nih.gov · primary source · cited for: context
  5. 51 in 3 teens have prediabetes, new CDC data shows - ABC Newsabcnews.com · not rated · cited for: contradicts
  6. 6Nearly 1 in 3 teens have prediabetes, CDC finds, in 'wake-up call'statnews.com · not rated · cited for: contradicts
  7. 7Nearly a Third of US Youth Have Prediabetes or Diabetesmedscape.com · not rated · cited for: contradicts
  8. 8Prevalence of Prediabetes Among Adolescents and Young Adults in ...jamanetwork.com · not rated · cited for: context

Where this claim was made

Said in 1 published post

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