Type 1 Diabetes
What Increases Your Risk
Risk factors for type 1 diabetes include:
- Family history of type 1 diabetes. Having a family history of the disease increases the chance that a person will have islet cell antibodies, but it does not predict that a person will have the disease. Only about 10% to 15% of people with type 1 diabetes have a family history of the disease.1
- If the father has the disease, a child has a 6% risk of developing it.
- If a sibling has the disease, a child has a 5% risk of developing it.
- If the mother has the disease, a child has a 2% risk of developing it.
- If an identical twin has the disease, the other twin has a 30% to 50% risk of developing it.
- If a parent and one sibling have the disease, a child has a 30% risk of developing it.
- Race. White people have a greater risk for developing type 1 diabetes than black, Asian, or Hispanic people.
- Presence of islet cell antibodies in the blood. People who have both a family history of type 1 diabetes and islet cell antibodies in their blood are likely to develop the disease at some time.
- Certain viral infections during childhood. A child who has enterovirus infections, particularly Coxsackie B infections, has a risk almost 6 times greater than other children for developing type 1 diabetes. However, this does not mean that the child will definitely develop the disease. In fact, doctors are uncertain if these infections play a role in the development of diabetes.3
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| Author: | Alison Allen Robin Parks, MS | Last Updated: February 21, 2007 |
| Medical Review: | Caroline S. Rhoads, MD - Internal Medicine Matthew I. Kim, MD - Endocrinology & Metabolism Andrew Swan, MD, CCFP, FCFP - Family Medicine | |
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