QUEBEC CITY — The long-term complications of childhood type 2 diabetes can stretch beyond the patient and into the next generation, according to new data from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg.
In a cohort of almost 90 children born to mothers diagnosed with childhood type 2 diabetes, 3 of the 9 children who are older than 7 years have already developed the disease themselves, Elizabeth Sellers, M.D., reported at the joint annual meeting of the Canadian Diabetes Association and the Canadian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism.
The results are part of an ongoing study led by Heather Dean, M.D., a colleague of Dr. Sellers. The study is looking into the high rate of youth-onset type 2 diabetes in northern Manitoba, where the majority of the population is First Nations Ojee-Cree.
A previous study by Dr. Sellers found that this population has a 14-fold increased risk of youth-onset type 2 diabetes. “We do not yet know how generalizable our findings our to other populations,” Dr. Sellers said.
An earlier study of 76 “graduates” of the first childhood type 2 diabetes cohort, who have now reached early adulthood (ages 18-30), documented 7 deaths, with 5 patients on dialysis for end-stage renal disease, 2 patients with blindness, and 1 who had had an amputation, she said.
That study has also documented a high rate of obstetrical complications among 56 young women in this cohort, with 13 first-trimester miscarriages, 3 second-trimester losses, and 2 stillbirths, Dr. Sellers said.
The latest study, called the Next Generation project, is following the offspring of young adults with type 2 diabetes, who were diagnosed when they themselves were children. These offspring are thought to be at high risk for developing youth-onset type 2 diabetes, and the preliminary findings back that up, she said.
The project will follow the offspring through childhood with annual screening for diabetes and will describe the evolution and natural history of the problem, she said.