The Learning Blog

A study that focused on maternal bereavement during the prenatal period has found that female fetuses exposed to prenatal stress are at increased risk of type 1 diabetes in later life. This is the first population-based study that examined the link between prenatal stress and diabetes in the human offspring.

A total of  1.5 million Danish children from 1979 to 2004 were analyzed using the Danish register. Out of this, 39, 587 children were exposed to severe stress during or before the prenatal period. Children in the study were followed from 2 to 27 years. The appearance of type 1 diabetes was more pronounced when deaths are caused by traumatic events and also those involving a father or a sibling. On the other hand, the authors did not find a link between bereavement and diabetes in non-traumatic events, also with the deaths of grandparents or maternal siblings.

The mechanism as to how prenatal stress can cause type 1 diabetes is still unknown but the authors think that this supports the view that type 1 diabetes may have causes that operate in fetal life.

We have focused on stress as one of many possible exposures but are aware that stress may just be an upstream cause of other factors of importance such as infections, or changes in dietary habits. Stress exposure may impact the immune system and thus increase the susceptibility of infections. If stress is not a direct cause of diabetes it would explain the rather weak association we find.

Putting this finding to a more broader scope as in political unrests, migrations, wars and disasters may have public health implications with long-term effects on children’s health.

Study:  Early Life Disease Programming during the Preconception and Prenatal Period:  Making the Link between Stressful Life Events and Type-1 Diabetes