Family History of Diabetes in Relation to Different Types of Obesity and Change of Obesity During 12-yr Period: Results from prospective population study of women in Göteborg, Sweden

Abstract

OBJECTIVE--To assess the relationship between family history and different types of obesity and change in obesity in a longitudinal population study. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS--A longitudinal population study of 1462 randomly selected women (38-60 yr old) was conducted in Göteborg, Sweden, in 1968-69. The women were restudied after 12 yr. RESULTS--A family history of diabetes in mothers but not fathers showed, in univariate analysis, a significant positive association with obesity expressed as BMI. A family history of diabetes in the mothers was inversely related to body fat distribution expressed as WHR. No other association was observed between family history of diabetes and WHR. The association with BMI was independent of age, WHR, smoking habits, blood glucose, systolic blood pressure, serum cholesterol, serum triglycerides, maternal obesity, and the incidence of diabetes during the 12-yr follow-up period. Twelve years later, in 1980-1981, an independent association still existed between family history for diabetes and BMI measured at that examination, whereas there was no relationship with WHR. Women who had a family history of diabetes increased their BMI significantly more during the 12-yr follow-up compared with the women without a family history of diabetes, whereas there was no difference for the change of WHR. Family history of coronary heart disease and family history of cancer did not correlate to any kind of obesity. CONCLUSIONS--These findings indicate that family history of diabetes is related to overall obesity but not to abdominal adiposity per se.

Familial clustering of arterial blood pressure, HDL cholesterol, and pro-insulin but not of insulin resistance and microalbuminuria in siblings of patients with type 2 diabetes.

“…These data favor the hypothesis that this clustering is associated with body weight and is not really indicative of a specific genetic susceptibility to insulin resistance; however, a family history of type 2 diabetes increases the likelihood of developing obesity in adult life (40), suggesting that insulin resistance, through a sustained low-grade hyperinsulinemia, can lead to increased BMI.…”

Family history of diabetes identifies a group at increased risk for the metabolic consequences of obesity and physical inactivity in EPIC-Norfolk: a population-based study

“…11 Family history is a surrogate marker not only for genetic susceptibility to diabetes, but also environmental factors that cluster in families. 28,29 However, whatever its pathophysiological basis, it is an easily identi®able marker that could be used to identify a sub-group of individuals at increased risk of the metabolic consequences of obesity. Information about family history of diabetes is readily available either from patients themselves or increasingly from routine primary care data.…”

Impaired (‘diabetic’) insulin signaling and action occur in fat cells long before glucose intolerance—is insulin resistance initiated in the adipose tissue?

“…28 Unfortunately, no information was available on diabetes heredity in this group. However, since diabetes heredity by itself is associated with a higher body weight and obesity, 30 -32 as well as an increased weight gain in prospective studies, 31 it is feasible that the obese individuals with low IRS-1 expression in the fat cells also had a genetic predisposition for type 2 diabetes. We found no association between a low IRS-1 expression and the common Arg972 Gly polymorphism of the IRS-1 gene.…”