Having a child with type 1 diabetes does not raise parents' heart attack risk
A Swedish study tracking 18,871 parents found no link between raising a child with type 1 diabetes and increased cardiovascular disease or death rates, despite prior evidence that the stress involved causes emotional strain. The finding could reshape how healthcare systems and employers approach support services for affected families.
Originaltitel: Major cardiovascular events and death in parents of children with type 1 diabetes: a register-based matched cohort study in Sweden
<p><strong>AIMS/HYPOTHESIS:</strong> Parenting a child with type 1 diabetes has been associated with stress-related symptoms. This study aimed to elucidate the potential impact on parental risk of major cardiovascular events (MCE) and death.</p><p><strong>METHODS:</strong> In this register-based study, we included the parents of 18,871 children, born 1987-2020 and diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in Sweden at <18 years. The median parental age at the child's diagnosis was 39.0 and 41.0 years for mothers and fathers, respectively. The cohort also encompassed 714,970 population-based matched parental control participants and 12,497 parental siblings. Cox proportional hazard regression models were employed to investigate the associations between having a child with type 1 diabetes and incident MCE and all-cause death, and, as secondary outcomes, acute coronary syndrome and ischaemic heart disease (IHD). We adjusted for potential confounders including parental type 1 diabetes and country of birth.</p><p><strong>RESULTS:</strong> During follow-up (median 12 years, range 0-35), we detected no associations between parenting a child with type 1 diabetes and MCE in mothers (adjusted HR [aHR] 1.02; 95% CI 0.90, 1.15) or in fathers (aHR 1.01; 95% CI 0.94, 1.08). We noted an increased hazard of IHD in exposed mothers (aHR 1.21; 95% CI 1.05, 1.41) with no corresponding signal in fathers (aHR 0.97; 95% CI 0.89, 1.05). Parental sibling analysis did not confirm the association in exposed mothers (aHR 1.01; 95% CI 0.73, 1.41). We further observed a slightly increased hazard of all-cause death in exposed fathers (aHR 1.09; 95% CI 1.01, 1.18), with a similar but non-significant estimate noted in exposed mothers (aHR 1.07; 95% CI 0.96, 1.20). The estimates from the sibling analyses of all-cause death in fathers and mothers were 1.12 (95% CI 0.90, 1.38) and 0.73 (95% CI 0.55, 0.96), respectively.</p><p><strong>CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION:</strong> Having a child diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in Sweden was not associated with MCE, but possibly with all-cause mortality. Further studies are needed to disentangle potential underlying mechanisms, and to investigate parental health outcomes across the full lifespan.</p>