Fig. 4.

Time dependence of the sex ratio, defined as the quotient of the percentage of male diabetes patients over the percentage of female diabetes patients for a given birth year (Materials and Methods). The ratio increases from about equal percentages in 1917 (ratio = 1) to a male dominance of almost 60% at the year 1962. For birth years after 1970 the situation reverses and females become more likely to develop diabetes. This reversal may be related to the well-known phenomenon of gestational diabetes (35).