No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Diabetes-Cooke et al. MEDICALSJOUNLThe fact that the inheritance of diabetes does not conform to the pattern expected on the single-gene hypothesis is of importance in the study of potential diabetes.We have shown that the offspring of two diabetic parents are at a relatively low risk of becoming clinically diabetic. They cannot all be assumed to be future diabetics, and it is therefore unjustifiable to .refer to them as prediabetic. A recent study of " prediabetes " (Taton et al., 1964) assumed that children of two diabetic parents and identical twins of diabetics could be regarded as equally at risk. Yet only 5 % of the former are diabetic, as compared with about 50% of the latter (Joslin et al., 1959; Harvald and Hauge, 1963).Our results suggest that no more than one-quarter of the children of conjugal diabetics will become diabetic, assuming that they develop the disease at the same ages as is true of the general diabetic-clinic population-and it may well be that the number will be less. However, it seems that the children of young-onset diabetics are more likely to develop the disorder than those of older onset.We are collecting more data in order to get a clearer idea of the risk of diabetes developing in the children of patients of different ages (and will welcome news of diabetic couples). SummaryA cooperative study of the children of conjugal diabetic couples has been made on behalf of the British Diabetic Association. Of 362 children of 164 couples both of whom were diabetic 16 (4.4%) were diagnosed as having diabetes. This is a greater number than was found in control couples in whom neither or one parent was diabetic.Diabetes is commoner in the children of diabetic parents who develop diabetes early in life than in those of older couples.If diabetes depends upon a single recessive gene all the offspring of the conjugal diabetic pairs should eventually become diabetic. However, the incidence so far suggests that only about one-quarter will do so.We are grateful to the physicians who sent us the material upon which this report is based, and to Miss Mary Wall for statistical advice.

We thank Mr. M. P. Curwen for statistical advice and Miss W. Smith for her help in the follow-up study.