Age at Onset of Type 1 Diabetes in Parents and Recurrence Risk in Offspring
- 1Folkhälsan Institute of Genetics, Folkhälsan Research Centre, Biomedicum Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland;
- 2Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland;
- 3National Institute of Health and Welfare, Diabetes Prevention Unit, Helsinki, Finland.
- Corresponding author: Valma Harjutsalo, valma.harjutsalo{at}helsinki.fi.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Our aim was to study the recurrence risk of type 1 diabetes in the offspring of parents with adult-onset (15–39 years) type 1 diabetes and to evaluate the transmission of diabetes within a continuum of parental age at onset of diabetes from childhood to adulthood.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Diabetes status of all offspring (n = 9,636) in two Finnish cohorts of parents with type 1 diabetes was defined until the end of year 2007. Cumulative incidences of type 1 diabetes among the offspring were estimated, and several factors contributing to the risk were assessed.
RESULTS During 137,455 person-years, a total of 413 offspring were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. The cumulative incidence by 20 years was 4.0% (95% CI 3.1–4.8) for the offspring of parents with adult-onset diabetes. The risk was equal according to the sex of the parents. The cumulative incidence decreased in parallel with the increase in age at onset of diabetes in the fathers. In the offspring of diabetic mothers, the risk was equal regardless of the age at onset of diabetes. However, the reduced risk in the maternal offspring was most pronounced in the daughters of the mothers with a diagnosis age <10 years.
CONCLUSIONS Type 1 diabetes transmission ratio distortion is strongly related to the sex and age at onset of diabetes in the diabetic parents.
Footnotes
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The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
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- Received March 6, 2009.
- Accepted September 22, 2009.
- © 2010 American Diabetes Association
