ABSTRACT

Objective:

Our objective was to compare the prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) in first degree and second-degree relatives of both type 2 DM patients and a non-diabetic control group.

Material and Method:

We studied 250 patients who were hospitalized in our clinic between 2001-2004. One hundret-seventy two (69%) patients were diabetic, 78 (31%) non-diabetic (control group). The presence of DM in the first and second-degree relatives of both the study and control group was investigated and the result obtained was compared using the Chisquare test.

Results:

The mean age in the study group was 60.6±11.2 (range 28-86); 102 (59.3%) of these were female, 70 (40.7%) were male. The mean age in the control group was 57.7± 10.7 (range 32-90); 46 (59%) were female and 32 (41%) were male patients. The two groups were alike in terms of age, gender and ethnic origin. DM was found in the first and second-degree relatives of 102 (59.9%) cases from the study group, while 22 (28.2%) cases were found from the control group. And this difference was statistically significant (p<0.001). In the study group, 59 (57.3%) of those with positive history had only one affected relative, while 44 (42.7%) had more that one relative affected by DM. In the subgroup analysis: 59 (34.3%) of the patients in the study group and 5 (6.4%) patients in the control group had a sibling affected by DM. The difference was significant (p<0.001). In the other subgroups (children, parents, second degree relatives), more incidents were seen in the study group than the control group; but the difference was not statistically significant.

Conclusion:

The incidence of DM among first degree and second-degree relatives of type II DM patients was higher than the control group. Therefore, it is recommended that the siblings of DM patients should be scanned for glucose metabolic disorder.