News
Diabetes: We are in it together
Living in a household implies sharing duties and responsibilities but it could also imply sharing your diabetes.
Published: 24 January 2014
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鈥淲e found a 26% increase in the risk of developing type 2 diabetes if your spouse also has type 2 diabetes,鈥� says senior author of the study, Dr. Kaberi Dasgupta, researcher at the Research Institute of the MUHC and an associate professor of medicine at 苹果淫院. 鈥淭his may be a platform to assist clinicians to develop strategies to involve both partners. Changing health behaviour is challenging and if you have the collaboration of your partner it鈥檚 likely to be easier.鈥�
Dr. Dasgupta鈥檚 team, located at the Division of Clinical Epidemiology of the MUHC, wanted to see if diabetes in one partner could lead to diabetes in the other partner because many of the risk behaviours that lead to diabetes, such as poor eating habits and low physical activity, could be shared within a household.
Researchers analyzed results from six selected studies that were conducted in different parts of the world and looked at key outcomes such as age, socioeconomic status and the way in which diabetes was diagnosed in 75,498 couples.听
Most of the studies used in the meta analysis relied on health records which may not always accurately record diabetes. Those that used direct blood testing suggested that diabetes risk doubles if your partner has diabetes. A strong correlation with pre-diabetes risk was also found.
鈥淲hen we look at the health history of patients, we often ask about family history,鈥� says Dr. Dasgupta. 听鈥淥ur results suggest spousal history may be another factor we should take in consideration.鈥�
According to Dr. Dasgupta, spousal diabetes is also a potential tool for early diabetes detection. 鈥淭he results of our review suggest that diabetes diagnosis in one spouse may warrant increased surveillance in the other,鈥� she says. 鈥淢oreover, it has been observed that men are less likely than women to undergo regular medical evaluation after childhood and that can result in delayed diabetes detection. As a result, men living with a spouse with diabetes history may particularly benefit from being followed more closely.鈥�
About the study: 听
The paper entitled Spousal diabetes as a diabetes risk factor: A systematic review and meta-analysis (BMC Medicine 2014, 12:12) was coauthored by Aaron Leong (Research Institute of the 苹果淫院 Health Centre and Division of Clinical Epidemiology, 苹果淫院 Health Centre in 听Montreal, Quebec, Canada); Elham Rahme and Kaberi Dasgupta (Research Institute of the 苹果淫院 Health Centre; Department of Medicine, 苹果淫院; 听Division of Clinical Epidemiology, 苹果淫院 Health Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada).听
This work was supported by the Fonds de recherche du Qu茅bec 鈥� Sant茅 (FRQS), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the Canadian Diabetes Association.
