Importance of family history in type 2 black South African diabetic patients

Abstract

Objective-To assess the family history of diabetes in type 2 black South African diabetics with emphasis on the parental phenotype. Design-Prospective case-control study in which family histories were obtained from patients. Setting-Diabetic clinic of a provincial teaching hospital in the Transkei region of South Africa. Subjects-A total of 1111 type 2 diabetics attending the diabetic clinic and 687 controls. Main outcome measures-History of diabetes in parents, siblings, maternal and paternal grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Results-Altogether 27.3% of diabetic subjects had a family history of diabetes compared with 8.4% in the control group (p<0.01). Among the group with positive family history 82.6% reported only one diabetic family member, while 17.4% reported at least two relatives; 6.6% had a diabetic relative from both maternal and paternal sides, and 87.8% had first degree relative with diabetes. Among them there was a significant maternal aggregation with 64.7% of patients having a diabetic mother compared with 27% who had a diabetic father (p<0.01). No maternal eVect was observed among the second and third degree relatives. Patients with positive family history had an earlier onset of diabetes than those without family history (p<0.01). Conclusion-These data suggest that type 2 diabetes is heritable in black South African diabetics. It is also likely that maternal influences may play an important part. (Postgrad Med J 2001;77:323-325)

The Effect of Perceived Stress and Family Functioning on People with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

“…Erasmus R et al, conducted a study on black African-Americans, which supported the data of a positive family history. [4] Diabetes was found to be more among urban population than rural population, which could be compared with the findings of the study which was conducted by Rayappa P et al, [5]. In the present study, it was found, that a majority of diabetic study population was females, but a study which was conducted by Siddartha et al, contradicted the findings of the present study, where a majority of the subjects were males [6].…”

Racial differences in the interaction between family history and risk factors associated with diabetes in the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey, 1999–2004

“…19,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] However, we also found that the magnitude of association between family history and diabetes varied depending on the presence of other risk factors and that these relationships, in turn, varied by race/ethnicity. Among blacks in particular, a high-familial risk was a much stronger risk factor for diabetes among subjects with a normal BMI, increasing the odds approximately 20-fold relative to subjects with an average family history.…”

Hearing function in Nigerian children with a family history of type 2 diabetes

“…Ologe et al [13,14], it is of some importance to recall that in the present study, all the teenagers with a family history of type 2 diabetes had this condition in only one parent; most of them fathers (see Section 3). This could have implication for the interpretation of our result and sample size and power calculations in future studies given data [14] from South African indicating that maternal inheritance may be significantly higher than paternal transmission; and the suggestion [15] that having two parents with type 2 diabetes amplifies the risk of inheritance compared to having one such parent with type 2 diabetes. However, as the pattern of inheritance of type 2 diabetes in black Africans appears to vary with geographic area and tribal/ethnic groups studied [13][14][15], it is not entirely clear whether the South African data [14] could be extrapolated to this Nigerian cohort.…”