Friday, April 13, 2012

Are my brothers and sisters and my children at risk of diabetes?

Are my brothers and sisters and my children at risk of diabetes?

If you have type 1 diabetes, your first-degree relatives (i.e. mother,  father, brother,  sister, and  your children)  are about ten times more likely than the general population to get type 1 diabetes. The frequency of type 1 diabetes in the general population is about half a percent (i.e., one in two hundred), so the risk in your first-degree relatives is about 10    1/2, or 5%. Fortunately, this is not particularly high. Also, it is related to age. About 90% of cases of type 1 diabetes occur before age 35. Therefore, the par- ents of a person with type 1 diabetes are at considerably less, and ever decreasing, risk compared to his or her sib- lings and children. The risk of getting type 1 diabetes for an identical twin of a person with  type  1 diabetes is
30–50%, indicating that environmental factors are very important, even though they are not well understood. In the  case of  type  2  diabetes, the  risk  is  considerably higher. On average, one out of three of the children of an individual with type 2 diabetes will develop the disease. Two out of three of the children will  develop diabetes when both parents have the disease. The risk of getting type 2 diabetes for an identical twin of a person with type 2 diabetes is 75–90%, indicating that genetic (hereditary) factors are very important.

No comments:

Post a Comment