Parental history and risk of type 2 diabetes in overweight Latino adolescents: A longitudinal analysis

OBJECTIVE - The purpose of this article was to examine metabolic risk factors for type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents as a function of maternal versus paternal family history of type 2 diabetes and to examine whether differences in these risk factors emerge during adolescent growth. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS - A total of 247 overweight Latino children (baseline age = 11.1 ± 1.7 years) with a parental history of type 2 diabetes were followed annually for 5 years (2.2 ± 1.2 observations/child) with measures of insulin sensitivity, acute insulin response to glucose, and disposition index. Longitudinal linear mixed-effects modeling was used to evaluate the influence of maternal versus paternal family history of type 2 diabetes on changes in diabetes risk factors over age. RESULTS - Insulin sensitivity and the disposition index decreased over age (β = -0.052 and β = -0.033, P < 0 0.01). Acute insulin response to glucose and fasting and 2-h glucose increased (β = 0.019, β = 0.002, and β = 0.003, P < 0.01). Declines in insulin sensitivity were significantly greater in participants whose maternal grandmothers had a history of type 2 diabetes (β = -0.03, P = 0.03). Declines in the disposition index (β = -0.02, P = 0.04) and increases in fasting glucose were significantly influenced by a maternal history of type 2 diabetes (β = 0.60, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS - Maternal but not paternal family history for diabetes may have a significant impact on insulin dynamics, becoming more pronounced during growth in overweight Latino adolescents. Further research is clearly warranted.