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Maternal overweight, obesity increases diabetes risk in children with nondiabetic parents
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Children of women with overweight and obesity during pregnancy have an increased risk for developing type 1 diabetes, even when their parents do not have the disease, according to research in Diabetologia.
The population-based cohort study from Sweden also confirms a significantly increased risk for type 1 diabetes in the offspring of both mothers and fathers with diabetes, regardless of ethnic background, according to researchers.
Tahereh Moradi, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and colleagues analyzed data from 1,263,358 children born in Sweden between 1992 and 2004. Researchers followed children from birth until diagnosis of type 1 diabetes, emigration, death or end of follow-up in 2009, whichever occurred first. Researchers calculated BMI for the first trimester of the mother’s pregnancy.
During the study period, 5,771 children were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Of those, 4,879 had parents born in Sweden, 5,155 had parents born within the Nordic countries and 322 had parents born outside of Nordic countries.
After adjustment for other factors, there was an increased risk for type 1 diabetes in the offspring of mothers without diabetes but with an increased first trimester BMI, regardless of parental country of birth (P = .001 for Nordic parents and P = .008 for non-Nordic parents). However, the magnitude of risk varied by ethnicity. Offspring of Nordic mothers with obesity had a 25% higher incidence rate ratio (IRR) for type 1 diabetes compared with offspring of women with normal BMI, whereas offspring of mothers with obesity from non-Nordic countries had a 67% higher IRR for the disease compared with the offspring of mothers with normal BMI, according to researchers.
In contrast, first trimester maternal overweight and obesity were associated with a decreased risk for type 1 diabetes in participants whose mothers had diabetes (maternal BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2; IRR = 0.58; 95% CI, 0.41-0.82), but that risk was reduced for participants of mothers with diabetes who were born in a Nordic country.
“The finding that first-trimester maternal obesity was a risk factor for type 1 diabetes only in offspring of parents without diabetes, and with no further increment in risk in offspring of parents with diabetes, clearly suggests that heredity for type 1 diabetes is the strongest risk factor of the two for development of type 1 diabetes in the next generation,” the researchers wrote.
Children of Nordic mothers with type 1, type 2 or gestational diabetes had about a three times higher risk for developing type 1 diabetes compared with the offspring of nondiabetic mothers after adjustment for parental diabetes, first trimester maternal BMI, smoking habits and other factors, according to researchers.
“Prevention of overweight and obesity in women of reproductive age may contribute to a decreased incidence of type 1 diabetes,” the researchers wrote. – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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