Age at diagnosis, anthropometry and birthweight in two ethnically different cohorts of children with type 1 diabetes living in Northwest England or Singapore.

Abstract

To compare children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) living in the Northwest England, United Kingdom (UK) or Singapore, and to correlate age at diagnosis with birthweight and anthropometry at T1D diagnosis. We included 166T1D children of white ethnicity in England (UK-White) and 185T1D children of East-Asian ethnicity origin in Singapore (SG-Asian) who were born between 2002 and 2020. The cohorts from UK-White and SG-Asian children differed significantly in FH of T1D (p<0.001), FH of T2D (p<0.001) and pubertal status at diagnosis (p=0.01). Median interquartile range (IQR) for age at diagnosis was similar in the two groups. UK-White children had significantly higher birthweight SDS, height SDS, weight SDS and BMI SDS (all p<0.001). Among the subgroup of 174 children who were prepubertal and diagnosed after age 5years, the UK-White children were 11months older than the SG-Asian children (p=0.02) indicating that SG-Asian children at the time of T1D diagnosis were more likely to be in puberty compared with UK-White children (30% vs. 18%). These two cohorts have substantially different genetic and environmental backgrounds, yet age at the diagnosis of T1D was similar except for the prepubertal children who were diagnosed after 5years old. Timing of puberty and other factors may influence how early T1D presents during childhood.