Type 1 diabetes risk in children born to women with fertility problems: a cohort study in 1.5 million Danish children.
BACKGROUND
While some studies have indicated that children born following fertility treatment are at an increased risk for insulin resistance and higher blood glucose levels, no study to date has investigated the risk of type 1 diabetes. In this large population-based cohort study we aim to assess the association between maternal fertility problems and the risk of type 1 diabetes in children.


METHODS
Information on all children, born in Denmark from 1987 to 2010, was extracted from the Civil Registration System and linked with the Danish Infertility Cohort to identify maternal fertility status. Diabetes information was obtained from the National Patient Register and the Childhood Diabetes Register. A Cox proportional hazard model was used to calculate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals.


RESULTS
A total of 1 550 519 children made up the study cohort, of whom 110 393 (7.1%) were born to women with fertility problems. In all, 313 children born to women with fertility problems (0.36%) and 5176 children born to women without fertility problems (0.28%) were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. The risk of type 1 diabetes was not affected by maternal fertility status (hazard ratio 1.01, 95% CI 0.90-1.13) when taking into account birth year, sex, history of parental diabetes, parental age and age at diagnosis.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results showed no association between maternal fertility problems and risk of type 1 diabetes in children.
Virus, Lifestyle and Genes, Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Marie
M
Hargreave
Virus, Lifestyle and Genes, Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark.|Department of Gynecology, Rigshospitalet University Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Susanne K
SK
Kjaer
Clinical Epidemiology, Steno Diabetes Center, Gentofte, Denmark.|National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
Marit E
ME
Jørgensen
Virus, Lifestyle and Genes, Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Allan
A
Jensen
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003718:Denmark; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000209:etiology*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012042:Registries; D027724:Reproductive Techniques, Assisted / Q000009:adverse effects*; D012307:Risk Factors; D055815:Young Adult
Diabetes - risk of type 1 diabetes in children; cohort study; epidemiology; infertility; infertility treatment