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A high linear growth is associated with an increased risk of childhood diabetes mellitus
L Blom1, L A Persson, G Dahlquist
1Department of Paediatrics, Sachs' Children's Hospital, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Insights
Diabetic children, particularly boys, tend to be taller than their peers before developing Type 1 diabetes. This increased height may be a risk factor for developing the condition.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Endocrinology
- Human Growth and Development
Background:
- Insulin release and growth are closely linked biological processes.
- Understanding growth patterns in children with diabetes is crucial for early detection and management.
- Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is an endocrine disorder affecting insulin production.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare height and weight development in children with T1DM against healthy controls from birth to disease onset.
- To identify potential anthropometric predictors of T1DM in childhood.
- To analyze growth trajectories in relation to age at diagnosis and sex.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective cohort study involving 337 children with recent-onset T1DM and 517 matched controls (ages 0-14).
- Data collection via questionnaires and growth records from health clinics and schools.
- Anthropometric measurements (height, weight) analyzed as standard deviation scores using NCHS/CDC growth references.
Main Results:
- Diabetic children were consistently taller than referent children, with a more pronounced difference in boys.
- Diabetic boys showed significantly increased height from 7 years prior to T1DM onset.
- Height standard deviation scores before T1DM onset indicated a linearly increasing odds ratio for developing diabetes in boys.
Conclusions:
- Pre-onset taller stature, especially in boys, is associated with an increased risk of Type 1 diabetes.
- Growth patterns may serve as an early indicator for T1DM risk assessment in children.
- Further research is warranted to explore the mechanisms linking growth and T1DM development.
Abstract:
Insulin release and growth are intimately connected. The aim of the present study was to investigate height and weight in diabetic children from birth to onset of Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus compared to that in referent children. Data on height and weight were collected from mailed questionnaires and from growth records obtained from the child health clinics and schools in 337 recent-onset diabetic children, 0-14 years old, and from 517 age-, sex-, and geographically matched referent children. A total of 9002 paired height and weight observations were collected. The anthropometric development of the children was expressed as standard deviation scores using the National Center for Health Statistics/Centers for Disease Control (NCHS/CDC) growth reference material. On the average, the diabetic children were consistently taller than the referent children, a finding more pronounced among the boys. The diabetic boys were significantly taller from 7 to 1 years before the clinical onset of the disease, regardless of age at onset. A similar tendency was found for the girls. When mean height from 5 to 1 years before onset was used as a possible risk factor for diabetes, a linearly increasing trend in the odds ratio was found for diabetes in boys (odds ratio = 1.0; 1.57; 2.46 for height standard deviation score values less than 0; 0-1 and greater than 1, respectively; p = 0.002 for trend). A similar, but statistically not significant, tendency was found for girls (odds ratio = 1.0; 1.44; 1.43). As regards height increment from birth similar trends in odds ratios were found.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)