Detailed family history of diabetes identified children at risk of type 2 diabetes: A population-based case-control study

Objectives: Recently, the incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in children has increased dramatically. Mass screening is suffering and costly. It remains unknown if a detailed family diabetes mellitus history (FDMH) can identify children with different risks of T2D. This study investigated how FDMH was associated with childhood T2D.Methods: From 1992 to 1997, a nationwide survey conducted in Taiwan for all 3 000 000 school children aged between 6 and 18 yr identified 1966 children with diabetes. For comparison, 1780 children were randomly selected as the control group from all students with normal fasting glycemia (NFG). Telephonic Interviews were conducted using questionnaire for detailed FDMH. In the present analysis, 505 children with T2D and 619 children with NFG were enrolled.Results: Children with more family members having diabetes were more likely to have T2D. Children with the parental FDMH had a higher risk for T2D than children with the grandparental FDMH; the odds ratios (ORs) were 2.61 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.25-5.48, p < 0.05) for boys and 6.47 (95% CI 2.69-15.6, p < 0.05) for girls, adjusting for age, birth weight, gestational age and body mass index (BMI) z-score. Children with maternal FDMH had a higher risk for T2D than children with paternal FDMH, and much greater in boys (OR = 29.5, 95% CI 3.67-237, p < 0.05) than in girls (OR = 7.63, 95% CI 2.05-28.4, p < 0.05), adjusted for age, birth weight, gestational age, BMI z-score, and FDMH in grandparents.Conclusions: Children with parental FDMH, especially the maternal FDMH, have an elevated risk for T2D. Detailed FDMH is a convenient alternative to identify children with different risks of T2D.