OBJECTIVE: To assess whether a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes by age 42 years is associated with prior cognitive deficits in childhood. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Logistic regression estimated type 2 diabetes risk among 9,113 members of the 1958 British birth cohort of the National Child Development Study (NCDS). Associations with type 2 diabetes were estimated for general ability and reading comprehension assessments at age 11 years, modeled using SD units. Adjustment was for markers of early-life exposures, social and material family characteristics, sex, and disability, with further adjustment for BMI at age 7 years. RESULTS: Adjusted odds ratios (95% CIs) for type 2 diabetes (n = 69) are 0.67 (0.51-0.87) for general ability and 0.58 (0.44-0.77) for reading comprehension. Neither additional adjustment for BMI, nor limiting the definition of type 2 diabetes to onset after age 33 years altered the associations substantially. CONCLUSIONS: Impaired cognitive function may precede clinical onset of type 2 diabetes.
OBJECTIVE: To assess whether a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes by age 42 years is associated with prior cognitive deficits in childhood. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Logistic regression estimated type 2 diabetes risk among 9,113 members of the 1958 British birth cohort of the National Child Development Study (NCDS). Associations with type 2 diabetes were estimated for general ability and reading comprehension assessments at age 11 years, modeled using SD units. Adjustment was for markers of early-life exposures, social and material family characteristics, sex, and disability, with further adjustment for BMI at age 7 years. RESULTS: Adjusted odds ratios (95% CIs) for type 2 diabetes (n = 69) are 0.67 (0.51-0.87) for general ability and 0.58 (0.44-0.77) for reading comprehension. Neither additional adjustment for BMI, nor limiting the definition of type 2 diabetes to onset after age 33 years altered the associations substantially. CONCLUSIONS: Impaired cognitive function may precede clinical onset of type 2 diabetes.
We thank Batty et al. (1) for their interest in our work (2). Our “omission” of their publications (all from 2007 or 2008) is not surprising. PubMed indicates that two of these articles were published after our article was submitted (19 July 2007), and the other cited article does not mention diabetes in its title. We are uncertain of the publication month for their book chapter written in Portuguese.Various sources of bias make investigation of childhood cognition and type 2 diabetes problematic, so conflicting results are possible. For example, limited use of adult health services or poorer access to health care among the less highly educated may mask an association between childhood cognitive deficits and doctor-diagnosed diabetes; these may even produce a spurious inverse relationship.We agree that further work is required to elucidate the various mechanisms that may mediate an association between childhood cognition and later diabetes. These mechanisms could include persistent health behaviors and metabolic influences.
Authors: Rodrigo B Mansur; Danielle S Cha; Hanna O Woldeyohannes; Joanna K Soczynska; Andre Zugman; Elisa Brietzke; Roger S McIntyre Journal: Neuromolecular Med Date: 2014-06-29 Impact factor: 3.843
Authors: Iva Čukić; René Mõttus; Michelle Luciano; John M Starr; Alexander Weiss; Ian J Deary Journal: J Psychosom Res Date: 2015-07-16 Impact factor: 3.006