Women patients with type 1 diabetes and having children are less likely to mortality than men

There was a new research published at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Barcelona, Spain and proves that having children lowers mortality in people with type 1 diabetes, but for women more than men. The research is by Dr Lena Sjöberg, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, and National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland and colleagues. Both men and women with childhood-onset type 1 diabetes have fewer offspring than the general population. In this study, Sjöberg and colleagues examined mortality and causes of death among subjects with childhood-onset type 1 diabetes compared to control people, with a focus on mortality differences between childless people and those having had offspring. Dr Sjöberg says: “The beneficial effect of having offspring on mortality was observed. It was, however, significantly smaller among men with diabetes than among men in the control group. In women, having offspring was associated with lower mortality in a similar way regardless of the diabetes status. One possible reason for this gender difference is that women with type 1 diabetes are trained and well motivated to achieve better metabolic control during pregnancy and that this motivation may persist also post partum”.