Diabetes Runs in Relationships? Spouses, Partners of Patients Likely to Be Diagnosed Within a Year
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A new study has found that live-in partners or spouses of diabetics have an increased risk of being diagnosed with the disease themselves.
According to Web MD, research has shown that the partners of newly diagnosed diabetics are twice as likely to be diagnosed with the disease themselves several months to a year later.
For the study, Mohammed K. Ali, from Emory University, and his colleagues, analyzed years worth of data from over 3 million participants from Kaiser Permanente in Northern California.
Researchers found that women with newly diagnosed partners or husbands had an an overall increased risk of getting diabetes by 90 percent. While for men with newly diagnosed partners or wives, the risk was even higher. "The take-home message is that it might push [doctors] a bit more to say, if someone is newly diagnosed, what's happening with heir partner?" said Ali. He added, "It may not be going as far as doing a glucose test, it might just be weighing them, or doing a 'paper-pencil' test...That might be he most prudent way, but it certainly seems necessary." Dr. Audrey C. Chu, from Brigham and Women's Hospital, said the study reveals how environmental factors can strongly influence the development of diabetes in a person, other than genetics. Diabetes UK explains that the risk of developing diabetes can increase depending on the family medical background of the disease. For instance, if a mother has Type-1 diabetes, there is an increased risk of the child becoming diabetic in the future by 2 percent. While doctors often look at the lineage of a person for signs of prediabetes, this recent research strongly suggests that doctors should also look into the surrounding environment of a person for signs of the disease. Some environmental factors that may lead to diabetes include: eating unhealthy food, physical inactivity and stress, according to Diabetes Self-Management. These factors, in particular, can be related to relationships. For instance, when in a relationship—especially when married—people tend to eat and keep the same type of foods. Hence, if one decides to eat a bag of chips, the other might be influenced to do the same. While the study of Ali and his colleagues shows some promise in terms of diabetes diagnosis, some claim their research falls short. Dr. James B. Meigs, from Massachusetts General Hospital, said the researchers did not consider certain factors like obesity, which could have lead to different findings. "If you get the data right, you might come to a different answer," Dr. Meigs said.
