Associations between longevity of parents and glucose regulation in their offspring: the KORA S4/F4 Study

Type 2 diabetes was less prevalent in studies of the offspring of centenarians and a separate study of nonagenarian siblings. We examined whether this reduction would also be found when less extreme criteria of parental longevity (a lifespan of at least 80 years) were applied. Moreover, we looked for an association between parental longevity and incidence of dysglycaemia, which has not yet been reported for a population-based study group.

Baseline and 7-year follow-up data on 55-74-year-old participants in the population-based German Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg (KORA) S4/F4 cohort study were used for the analyses. Participants whose parents had died from traumatic causes were excluded. Diabetes was assessed by validated physician diagnosis or OGTTs. Using logistic regression models, adjusted OR and 95% CIs were calculated for the associations between parental longevity and the prevalence or incidence of dysglycaemia, which was defined as including either type 2 diabetes or prediabetes (defined in this study as comprising impaired glucose tolerance [IGT] and impaired fasting glucose [IFG]).

In age- and sex-adjusted models, the prevalence of type 2 diabetes was lower in individuals with one (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.43, 0.93) or two (OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.25, 0.85) long-lived parents. Among participants with normal glucose tolerance at baseline, the odds of incident dysglycaemia were lower in those with one (OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.40, 1.03) or two long-lived parents (OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.22, 0.96) after adjustment for age and sex.

This study showed that longevity of the parents, defined by a lifespan of at least 80 years, was associated with a lower prevalence and incidence of dysglycaemia in their offspring in an older German population.