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Observational Study
. 2021 Mar;64(3):581-590.
doi: 10.1007/s00125-020-05342-x. Epub 2020 Dec 17.

Family history of type 2 diabetes and characteristics of children with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes

Anna Parkkola  1   2 , Maaret Turtinen  1   2 , Taina Härkönen  1   2 , Jorma Ilonen  3   4 , Mikael Knip  5   6   7   8 ; Finnish Pediatric Diabetes Register
Collaborators, Affiliations
Observational Study

Family history of type 2 diabetes and characteristics of children with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes

Anna Parkkola et al. Diabetologia. 2021 Mar.

Abstract

Aims/hypothesis: Shared aetiopathogenetic factors have been proposed in type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes and both diseases have been shown to cluster in families. Characteristics related to type 2 diabetes have been described in patients with type 1 diabetes with a positive family history of type 2 diabetes. We wanted to characterise the family history of type 2 diabetes and its possible effects on the phenotype and genotype of type 1 diabetes in affected children at diagnosis.

Methods: A total of 4993 children under the age of 15 years with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes from the Finnish Pediatric Diabetes Register were recruited (56.6% boys, median age of 8.2 years) for a cross-sectional, observational, population-based investigation. The family history of diabetes at diagnosis was determined by a structured questionnaire, and markers of metabolic derangement, autoantibodies and HLA class II genetics at diagnosis were analysed.

Results: Two per cent of the children had an immediate family member and 36% had grandparents with type 2 diabetes. Fathers and grandfathers were affected by type 2 diabetes more often than mothers and grandmothers. The children with a positive family history for type 2 diabetes were older at the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes (p < 0.001), had higher BMI-for-age (p = 0.01) and more often tested negative for all diabetes-related autoantibodies (p = 0.02).

Conclusions/interpretation: Features associated with type 2 diabetes, such as higher body weight, older age at diagnosis and autoantibody negativity, are more frequently already present at the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes in children with a positive family history of type 2 diabetes.

Keywords: Autoantibodies; Children; Family history; HLA; Type 1 diabetes; Type 2 diabetes.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart displaying the numbers and the proportions of participants with relatives affected by type 2 diabetes in different groups in the total cohort of 4993 children with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes. The dotted lines indicate those occasions where there are two affected family members, but both family members have already been included in the total number in that category
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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