NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Young patients with diabetes are at risk for kidney disease during the first decade after diagnosis, even if they have reasonably good sugar control, new research suggests. The risk is especially high for those with type 2 diabetes, the kind that doesn't require insulin.

Dr. Maria Svensson, of Umea University Hospital, and colleagues studied patients between the ages of 15 and 34 years who were diagnosed with diabetes between 1987 and 1988. Of the 469 subjects studied, 426 were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and the remainder had type 2.

The researchers' findings are reported in the medical journal ***Diabetes Care***.

During a follow-up period of around 9 years, 6.6 percent of patients developed kidney disease. Typically, it took about 8 years from being diagnosed with diabetes to develop the kidney disease.

Sixteen percent of type 2 diabetics developed kidney disease, much higher than the rate among type 1 diabetics, at 5.6 percent. Moreover, the kidney disease was often more severe in patients with type 2 diabetes.

"This highlights the importance of a correct diabetes classification in this age-group," Svensson's team writes.

Although many of the patients had poorly controlled sugar levels, a large number of patients with good control still developed kidney disease. High blood pressure was another risk factor for kidney disease.

"Screening for (kidney problems) should for practical purposes begin as soon as possible after diabetes diagnosis," they conclude.