Abstract
This study examined the association between self-reported diabetes, fish consumption and serum levels of organochlorines in a First Nation community. One quarter of the 101 participants reported diabetes. Serum PCBs, but not p,p’-DDE, were positively correlated to consumption frequency of total fish, walleye and pike, but not trout. Reported diabetes was positively associated to p,p’-DDE and some PCB congeners. Odds Ratios (OR) for reported diabetes for those in the upper 75th percentile for serum p,p’-DDE compared to the others were 3.5 (95% CI 1–13.8) and 6.1 (95% CI 1.4–27.3) (weight wet and lipid-standardized values, respectively) and for total sum of PCBs: 4.91 (95% CI 1.4–19.0) and 5.51 (95% CI 1.3–24.1). For participants who were in the upper 50th percentile for trout and white fish intake, reported diabetes was respectively 6 and 4 times lower compared to the others. These findings support the hypothesis that environmental exposure to elevated p,p’-DDE and PCBs is associated with increased risk of diabetes. Consumption of trout and white fish may be beneficial to reduce risk.
Highlights
Diabetes has been one of the most important growing public health concerns for the last two decades [1,2,3]
Several studies have shown a positive association between diabetes and biomarkers of organochlorine (OC) exposure, including several polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) congeners and chlorinated pesticides like dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p’-DDE) [12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22]
The present study explored this data set with respect to a possible association between self-reported diabetes, fish consumption and serum concentrations of the OCs
Summary
Diabetes has been one of the most important growing public health concerns for the last two decades [1,2,3]. Recent evidence suggests that exposure to some commonly encountered environmental contaminants may contribute to Type 2 diabetes [10,11]. Several studies have shown a positive association between diabetes and biomarkers of organochlorine (OC) exposure, including several polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) congeners and chlorinated pesticides like dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p’-DDE) [12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22]. In North America, aboriginal populations present a disproportionately high prevalence of Type 2 diabetes. In Canada, the burden of Type 2 diabetes is three to five times higher in native populations than in the general Canadian population and will likely continue to increase [23,24,25]. High levels of OCs have been reported for northern native populations (for review see [25]), and traditional food is considered the major vector of contaminant exposure
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