The Impact of Childhood Traumatization on Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 Risk in World War II Refugees and Their Offspring

Abstract

Objective Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) is a chronic disease that is influenced by different factors. The extent to which degree adverse childhood events (ACEs) can modify the potential to development of T2D is still not explored and therefore represents one of the central questions of the childhood escape–late life outcome (DRKS00012419) study. In addition, transgenerational effects were considered in the analyses. Methods The study analyzed the association of self-reported traumatic experiences and T2D disease of refugees from East Prussia, who were displaced from their former homeland at the end of the World War II. In addition, an independent sample consisting of participants of first-generation offspring of refugees was analyzed. Results Of the 242 refugees, all aged between 73 and 93 years, 17.36% reported T2D disease, whereas among the offspring (n = 272), aged between 47 and 73 years, it was 5.5%, meaning reduced T2D prevalence for both generations compared with the German population of comparable age. In the refugee generation, emotional neglect showed a negative association with development of T2D in later life. In women, separation from close caregivers in childhood showed a negative association with later T2D. In contrast, experiencing emotional abuse in childhood showed a positive association with later T2D. The offspring generation showed no associations of adverse childhood events and reported T2D diagnoses in later life. Conclusions Our results demonstrate that individual trauma in childhood is responded to with different mechanisms that can lead to both increased and decreased reported T2D diagnoses in adulthood and thus should by no means be considered in a generalized manner.