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Item #8.
Diabetes
And Obesity Link To Prenatal Smoking
Cigarette
smoking as a young adult is associated with an increased risk of
subsequent diabetes
Women
who smoke during pregnancy increase the risk of their infant
developing diabetes and obesity in later life.
At the same time, a study by Dr Scott Montgomery and colleagues at
the Enheten for Klinisk Epidemiologi, Stockholm, Sweden, shows
that cigarette smoking as a young adult is associated with an
increased risk of subsequent diabetes.
Dr Montgomery and colleagues used British data on about 17,000
births from March 3 to 9, 1958 to conduct the investigation. At
birth, midwives recorded information on how much the women smoked
after the fourth month of pregnancy. Details of maternal smoking
were again recorded in 1974. Overall group smoking behavior was
recorded during interviews with them when they reached the age of
16.
Medical examinations and record reviews were conducted among the
cohort at the age of seven and 16, and a personal interview at age
33 years asked about diabetes. Among those followed fully
throughout childhood and adolescence to age 33, the authors
identified 15 men and 13 women who had developed diabetes between
16 and 33 years, and 602 individuals (10 percent) who were obese
at age 33.
The association of diabetes with maternal smoking specifically
during pregnancy suggests that it is a true risk factor for early
adult onset diabetes. Cigarette smoking as a young adult was also
independently associated with an increased risk of subsequent
diabetes.
Men and women who did not have diabetes, but whose mothers smoked
during pregnancy, were significantly more likely to be obese or
overweight by age 33.
It is suggested that in utero exposure to smoking results
in lifelong metabolic dysregulation, possibly due to fetal
malnutrition or toxicity, and stress that smoking during pregnancy
should always be strongly discouraged.
The association of diabetes with maternal smoking during pregnancy
"suggests that it is a true risk factor for early adult onset
diabetes," the researchers conclude. "Cigarette smoking
as a young adult was also independently associated with an
increased risk of subsequent diabetes." BMJ
2001 324, pp 26-27.
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Did You Know:
High
blood pressure affects 71 percent of people with diabetes but few
of them receive adequate treatment to achieve recommended levels,
according to a new study.
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