Twins more prone to diabetes

Elderly twins have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes, suggesting that certain prenatal factors may contribute to the disease even late in life.

Genetic factors, low birth weight, and aging are key factors in the development of type 2 diabetes. Low bith weight is common among twins. It is unknown whether twin status is associated with risk of type 2 diabetes. To investiage this, researchers from Denmark compared 297 same-sex twins with other 71 singleton adults.

It was found that the twins had a higher rate of abdominal obesity and problems with blood-sugar metabolism. They also had nearly three times the prevalence of type 2 diabetes, as well as a 60 per cent higher risk of developing the disease over the next 10 years.

The findings were similar among identical and fraternal twins. Around 16 per cent of fraternal twins and 17 per cent of identical twins had type 2 diabetes at the outset, compared with less than 6 percent of adults who had been born singletons.

Moreover, when one fraternal twin had the disorder, the chances of the other developing it by the age of 84 years were about 70 per cent, on par with the risks among identical twins.

Because fraternal twins share no more genes than non-twin siblings do, the results suggest that something about the fetal environment rather than genetics may cause the higher diabetes prevalence among twins.