According to a study in the journal Nature Communications, being overweight during childhood may raise the risk of developing type 1 diabetes (T1D).
More than 400,000 participants’ genetic data was gathered and analyzed as part of the study by researchers from the University of Bristol and the University of Oxford.
“In this study, we use Mendelian randomization (MR) to provide evidence that childhood body size has an effect on T1D risk, which remains after accounting for body size at birth and during adulthood using multivariable MR,” the study’s authors explain.
“We present evidence suggesting that body size in childhood increases the risk of T1D based on the age-at-diagnosis of the participants analysed in this study,” the authors emphasized.
“Our findings support a causal role for higher childhood body size on risk of being diagnosed with T1D, whereas its influence on the other immune-associated diseases is likely explained by a long-term effect of remaining overweight for many years over the lifecourse.”
The study was published online on April 28, 2022.
