Association of parental history of diabetes with cardiovascular disease risk factors in children with type 2 diabetes

Aims Determine if parental diabetes (DM) is associated with unhealthier cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk profiles in youth with type 2 diabetes (T2D), and whether associations differed by race/ethnicity. Methods Family history was available for 382 youth with T2D from 2001 prevalent and 2002-2005 incident SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth cohorts. Parental DM was evaluated in two ways: two-category - any parent vs. no parent DM (evaluated overall and stratified by race/ethnicity); and four-category - both parents, mother only, father only, or no parent DM (evaluated overall only). Associations with hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), fasting lipids, blood pressure (BP), and urine albumin:creatinine ratio (ACR) were examined using regression models. Results Overall, sample characteristics included: 35.9% male, 19.1% non-Hispanic white (NHW), mean T2D duration 26.6 ± 22.2 months, mean HbA1c 7.9% ± 2.5% (62.6 ± 27.8 mmol/mol). Unadjusted two-category comparisons showed that youth with parental DM had higher HbA1c, higher DBP, and higher frequency of elevated ACR. Adjusted two-category comparisons showed associations remaining in non-stratified analysis for ACR [OR (95% CI) = 2.3 (1.1, 5.0)] and in NHW youth for HbA1c [6.8% ± 0.4 vs. 8.0 ± 0.4 (51.1 ± 4.8 vs. 63.9 ± 4.2 mmol/mol), p =.015], DBP (67.7% ± 4.5 vs. 76.9 ± 4.4 mm Hg, p =.014) and lnTG (4.7 ± 0.3 vs. 5.3 ± 0.3, p =.008). There were no significant findings in the adjusted four-category evaluation. Conclusions Parental history of diabetes may be associated with unhealthier CVD risk factors in youth with T2D.