Kinship analysis of type 2 diabetes mellitus familial aggregation in Taiwan

Abstract

BackgroundFamily disease history plays a vital role in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) risk. However, the familial aggregation of T2DM among different kinship relatives warrants further investigation. MethodsThis nationwide kinship relationship study collected 2000–2016 data of two to five generations of the Taiwanese population from the National Health Insurance Research Database. Approximately 4 million family trees were constructed from the records of 20, 890, 264 Taiwanese residents during the study period. T2DM was diagnosed on the basis of ICD-9-CM codes 250.x0 or 250.x2, with three consecutive related prescriptions. The Cox proportional hazard model was used for statistical analysis. ResultsCompared with their counterparts, individuals who had first-degree relatives with T2DM were more likely to develop T2DM during the follow-up period (hazard ratio [HR], 2.37–27.75), followed by individuals who had second-degree relatives with T2DM (HR, 1.29–1.88). T2DM relative risk was higher in those with an affected mother than in those with affected father. The HR for T2DM was 20.32 (95%CI = 15.64–26.42) among male individuals with an affected twin brother, whereas among female individuals with an affected twin sister, it was 60.07 (95%CI = 40.83–88.36). The HRs presented a dose–response relationship with the number of affected family members. ConclusionThe study suggests a significant familial aggregation of T2DM occurrence; these findings could aid in identifying the high-risk group for T2DM and designing early intervention strategies and treatment plans.