Skip to main content
PMC home page
Postgraduate Medical Journal logoLink to Postgraduate Medical Journal
. 2001 May;77(907):323–325. doi: 10.1136/pmj.77.907.323

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

R Erasmus 1, E Blanco 1, A Okesina 1, J Arana 1, Z Gqweta 1, T Matsha 1
PMCID: PMC1742028  PMID: 11320276

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 effect 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.


Keywords: diabetes; family history

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (108.2 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Alcolado J. C., Alcolado R. Importance of maternal history of non-insulin dependent diabetic patients. BMJ. 1991 May 18;302(6786):1178–1180. doi: 10.1136/bmj.302.6786.1178. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Barnett A. H., Eff C., Leslie R. D., Pyke D. A. Diabetes in identical twins. A study of 200 pairs. Diabetologia. 1981 Feb;20(2):87–93. doi: 10.1007/BF00262007. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cheţa D., Dumitrescu C., Georgescu M., Cocioabă G., Lichiardopol R., Stamoran M., Ionescu-Tîrgovişte C., Păunescu-Georgescu M., Mincu I. A study on the types of diabetes mellitus in first degree relatives of diabetic patients. Diabete Metab. 1990 Jan-Feb;16(1):11–15. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Erasmus R. T., Fakeye T., Olukoga O., Okesina A. B., Ebomoyi E., Adeleye M., Arije A. Prevalence of diabetes mellitus in a Nigerian population. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1989 May-Jun;83(3):417–418. doi: 10.1016/0035-9203(89)90524-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Eriksson J., Franssila-Kallunki A., Ekstrand A., Saloranta C., Widén E., Schalin C., Groop L. Early metabolic defects in persons at increased risk for non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. N Engl J Med. 1989 Aug 10;321(6):337–343. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198908103210601. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Hales C. N., Barker D. J. Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus: the thrifty phenotype hypothesis. Diabetologia. 1992 Jul;35(7):595–601. doi: 10.1007/BF00400248. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Keen H., Jarrett R. J., McCartney P. The ten-year follow-up of the Bedford survey (1962-1972): glucose tolerance and diabetes. Diabetologia. 1982 Feb;22(2):73–78. doi: 10.1007/BF00254832. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Klein B. E., Klein R., Moss S. E., Cruickshanks K. J. Parental history of diabetes in a population-based study. Diabetes Care. 1996 Aug;19(8):827–830. doi: 10.2337/diacare.19.8.827. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Levitt N. S., Katzenellenbogen J. M., Bradshaw D., Hoffman M. N., Bonnici F. The prevalence and identification of risk factors for NIDDM in urban Africans in Cape Town, South Africa. Diabetes Care. 1993 Apr;16(4):601–607. doi: 10.2337/diacare.16.4.601. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Levitt N. S., Steyn K., De Wet T., Morrell C., Edwards R., Ellison G. T., Cameron N. An inverse relation between blood pressure and birth weight among 5 year old children from Soweto, South Africa. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1999 May;53(5):264–268. doi: 10.1136/jech.53.5.264. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Mengesha B., Abdulkadir J. Heritability of diabetes mellitus in Ethiopian diabetics. East Afr Med J. 1997 Jan;74(1):37–40. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Mitchell B. D., Kammerer C. M., Reinhart L. J., Stern M. P., MacCluer J. W. Is there an excess in maternal transmission of NIDDM? Diabetologia. 1995 Mar;38(3):314–317. doi: 10.1007/BF00400636. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Newman B., Selby J. V., King M. C., Slemenda C., Fabsitz R., Friedman G. D. Concordance for type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus in male twins. Diabetologia. 1987 Oct;30(10):763–768. doi: 10.1007/BF00275741. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Omar M. A., Asmal A. C. Family histories of diabetes mellitus in young African and Indian diabetes. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1983 Jun 4;286(6380):1786–1786. doi: 10.1136/bmj.286.6380.1786. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Permutt M. A. Genetics of NIDDM. Diabetes Care. 1990 Nov;13(11):1150–1153. doi: 10.2337/diacare.13.11.1150. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Pettitt D. J., Aleck K. A., Baird H. R., Carraher M. J., Bennett P. H., Knowler W. C. Congenital susceptibility to NIDDM. Role of intrauterine environment. Diabetes. 1988 May;37(5):622–628. doi: 10.2337/diab.37.5.622. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Phillips D. I., Barker D. J., Hales C. N., Hirst S., Osmond C. Thinness at birth and insulin resistance in adult life. Diabetologia. 1994 Feb;37(2):150–154. doi: 10.1007/s001250050086. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. SIMPSON N. E. MULTIFACTORIAL INHERITANCE: A POSSIBLE HYPOTHESIS FOR DIABETES. Diabetes. 1964 Sep-Oct;13:462–471. doi: 10.2337/diab.13.5.462. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Serjeantson S. W., Zimmet P. Genetics of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus in 1990. Baillieres Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1991 Sep;5(3):477–493. doi: 10.1016/s0950-351x(05)80143-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Simpson N. E. Diabetes in the families of diabetics. Can Med Assoc J. 1968 Mar 2;98(9):427–432. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Turner R., Hattersley A., Cook J. Type II diabetes: search for primary defects. Ann Med. 1992 Dec;24(6):511–516. doi: 10.3109/07853899209167004. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Warram J. H., Martin B. C., Krolewski A. S., Soeldner J. S., Kahn C. R. Slow glucose removal rate and hyperinsulinemia precede the development of type II diabetes in the offspring of diabetic parents. Ann Intern Med. 1990 Dec 15;113(12):909–915. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-113-12-909. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Postgraduate Medical Journal are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES