Accumulation of Major Life Events in Childhood and Adult Life and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

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Background: The aim of the study was to estimate the effect of the accumulation of major life events(MLE) in childhood and adulthood, in both the private and working domains, on risk of type2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Furthermore, we aimed to test the possible interaction betweenchildhood and adult MLE and to investigate modification of these associations by educational attainment.
Methods: The study was based on 4,761 participants from the Copenhagen City Heart Study free ofdiabetes at baseline and followed for 10 years. MLE were categorized as 0, 1, 2, 3 or moreevents. Multivariate logistic regression models adjusted for age, sex, education and familyhistory of diabetes were used to estimate the association between MLE and T2DM.
Results: In childhood, experiencing 3 or more MLE was associated with a 69% higher risk of developingT2DM (Odds Ratio (OR) 1.69; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.60, 3.27). The accumulationof MLE in adult private (p-trend = 0.016) and work life (p-trend = 0.049) was associatedwith risk of T2DM in a dose response manner. There was no evidence that experiencingMLE in both childhood and adult life was more strongly associated with T2DM thanexperiencing events at only one time point. There was some evidence that being simultaneouslyexposed to childhood MLE and short education (OR 2.28; 95% C.I. 1.45, 3.59) andwork MLE and short education (OR 2.86; 95% C.I. 1.62, 5.03) was associated with higherrisk of T2DM, as the joint effects were greater than the sum of their individual effects.
Conclusions: Findings from this study suggest that the accumulation of MLE in childhood, private adultlife and work life, respectively, are risk factors for developing T2DM.
Original languageEnglish
Article number0138654
JournalP L o S One
Volume10
Issue number9
Pages (from-to)1-12
Number of pages12
ISSN1932-6203
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 22 Sep 2015

ID: 153043859