The survey of family history of diabetes in patients with type 2 diabetes in Chaharmahal va Bakhteyari province, Iran, 2008

Diabetes is a multi-factorial and metabolic disease, which is diagnosed by chronic hyperglycemia. Although a few epidemiological researches have focused on the genetic of the type 2 diabetes in Iran, but it is not clear that which of the parents are more important to transmit the disease to their children, mothers or fathers? This study was performed in Chaharmahal va Bakhteyari province in Iran to answer to this question. This survey was a cross – sectional epidemiological study on all diabetic patients in Chaharmahal va Bakhteyari province in 2008. A two-stage random sampling method was used to select 254 diabetic patients. Data was collected by interview and analyzed by stata9 software, using Chi-square test. From the total number of the type 2 diabetic patients, 59% were female. The average age of the patients was 54.8±8.6 years and the average duration of the disease was 7.4±5.8 years. A positive history of the disease was seen in the family of 116 patients (45.7%), for example 61.4% of the patients had a family history in their mothers, 19.8% in their fathers, 62.9% in their sisters, 18.1% in their brothers, 40.5% in their daughters and finally 18.1% in their sons. Positive family history was higher in mothers than fathers. This was seen more in sisters and daughters compared to the brothers and sons (P<0.001). Our findings showed that the chance of having diabetes from the mothers is higher than from the fathers. It means that type 2 diabetes can be inherited from the mothers more than the fathers.