Association between the type of family history of diabetes and the risk and age at onset of diabetes in the Japanese general population.

AIM

The objective of this cross-sectional study was to clarify the relationship between the type of first-degree family history of diabetes (FHD) and the presence and age at onset of diabetes (AOD) in the Japanese general population.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Using anonymized processed data collected from community-based health checkups, we classified 10,691 subjects into 5 groups according to the type of FHD as follows: (1) no FHD; (2) diabetes only in a sibling (sFHD); (3) diabetes only in the mother (mFHD); (4) diabetes only in the father (pFHD); and (5) diabetes in ≥ 2 family members, e.g., one parent plus a sibling or both parents (FHD in ≥ 2 family members).

RESULT

Results of multivariate logistic regression analysis performed using the no FHD group as reference revealed a significant association between a positive FHD and the presence of diabetes (odds ratio: sFHD, 3.67; mFHD, 3.70; pFHD, 2.88; FHD in ≥ 2 family members, 6.35;  < 0.0001 for all). Moreover, the AOD was significantly younger in all the four groups with FHD than in the group without FHD ( < 0.01), being the youngest in the group of FHD in ≥ 2 family members.

CONCLUSION

Our results revealed that the degree of associations between a positive FHD and the presence of diabetes and AOD differ according to the type of FHD. In particular, FHD in ≥ 2 family members appears to be especially strongly associated with a high risk of diabetes and a younger AOD.