Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Family History: A Case Control Study

Diabetes is a multifaceted metabolic disorder marked by chronically high levels of glucose in the bloodstream. Family history is a significant risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes (T2D). The objectives of our study were to assess the association between maternal and paternal diabetes and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus and to determine the sociodemographic characteristics associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus among the adults in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A case control study was conducted among 141 adults (47 cases and 94 controls) by means of a validated, self-administered questionnaire in both English and Arabic languages distributed in printed format. Cases can be defined as participants with type 2 diabetes mellitus and controls can be defined as participants without type 2 diabetes mellitus. The study setting was a tertiary hospital in Ajman, UAE and the duration of the study was six months. Permission was obtained from IRB before conducting the research. SPSS Version 28 was used to analyze the data. Chi-square test was used to test the association between the variables, and significant factors were further analyzed using binary logistic regression. The estimated risk of diagnosis of T2D increases by almost 5 fold if there is a positive family history of T2D, OR=4.79 (2.08-11.02). It was also noted that subjects having a positive family history of mothers with gestational diabetes are OR=2.5 (1.04-6.41) times more prone to developing T2D. It has been implicated that maternal history of T2D has a higher likelihood of being passed on to the next generation. Additionally, age, gender and marital status have been found to be risk factors in the development of T2D. The study revealed that family history is a strong independent risk factor for T2D. Among history of other chronic illnesses in the family, history of gestational diabetes remains a significant risk factor for T2D. Additionally, among the sociodemographic variables, age, gender and marital status were found to be significant risk factors.