Family History of Diabetes Increases the Risk of Pre-Diabetes by 26 Percent

A study involving more than 8,000 participants has shown that people with a family history of diabetes see their risk of pre-diabetes increase by 26 percent. The research is published in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, and is by Dr. Andreas Fritsche and colleagues from the German Center for Diabetes Research. You can download a copy (in a .zip file) of the research here.

Pre-diabetes is a condition most often described as the “state between normal blood sugar control and full diabetes,” and indeed pre-diabetes progresses to full blown diabetes in up to 20 percent of individuals affected per year.

Pre-diabetes can take two forms: impaired fasting glycaemia (IFG), whereby levels of glucose in the fast state are higher than normal but not high enough to be classed as diabetes; and also impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), where blood sugar levels are abnormal due to increased insulin resistance. While it is known that a family history of type 2 diabetes increases the risk of full blown diabetes, research has not yet explored whether such a family history increases the risk of pre-diabetes in either form.

In this study Fritsche and colleagues analyzed 8,106 non-diabetic individuals of European origin collected from the study centers of the German Center for Diabetes Research. Of these, 5,482 had normal glucose tolerance, and 2,624 had IFG and/or IGT n=2,624. They analyzed whether having at least one first degree relative with diabetes is associated with pre-diabetes.

A family history of diabetes was found to increase the crude, unadjusted risk for pre-diabetes (IFG and/or IGT) by 40 percent. This increased risk fell to 26 percent when the analysis took account of age, sex, and BMI [body mass index] of participants.

When different types of pre-diabetes were considered, family history increased the risk of isolated IFG by 37 percent, of isolated IGT by 25 percent, and the two combined by 64 percent. However overall, when adjusted for BMI, the association between family history and pre-diabetes was seen only in non-obese individuals (BMI<30 kg/m2). The authors say: "Our data suggest that a family history of diabetes is associated with pre-diabetes in non-obese rather than in obese individuals. This might indicate the effect of family history on pre-diabetes becomes readily measurable only when not overshadowed by strong risk factors such as obesity."

They conclude: "We found that family history is an important risk factor for pre-diabetes, especially for combined IGT and IFG. Its relevance seems to be more evident in the non-obese."

Sender :  Dr.Noble Zachariah 

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