Prevalence of diabetes among children of insulin-dependent diabetic mothers.

Eight diabetics were found among 464 children, mean age 11.2 years, of 311 unselected insulin-treated mothers. By a method of age correction the total diabetes prevalence among the children at the age of 25 years was calculated as 3.4%. Three children were non-insulin dependent and these patients and their mothers may belong to the autosomal dominant type of diabetes, so-called MODY. In two of the other five families the fathers also had insulin-dependent diabetes; in two more cases first or second degree paternal relatives were insulin-dependent diabetics. Thus the prevalence of insulin-dependent diabetes among the children of insulin dependent mothers married to non-diabetics is calculated as 1.5% at the age of 25 years.