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Maternal intake of fatty acids and their food sources during lactation and the risk of preclinical and clinical type 1 diabetes in the offspring

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Abstract

Aims

We examined maternal dietary intake of fatty acids and foods which are sources of fatty acids during lactation and whether they are associated with the risk of preclinical and clinical type 1 diabetes in the offspring.

Methods

The subjects comprised a cohort of 2,939 mother–child pairs from the prospective Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention Study. Composition of maternal diet during the third month of lactation was assessed by a validated food frequency questionnaire. Among the children with HLA-conferred susceptibility to type 1 diabetes, 172 developed preclinical and 81 clinical diabetes. Average follow-up for preclinical type 1 diabetes was 7.5 years (range 0.2–14.0 years) and for clinical type 1 diabetes 7.7 years (0.2–14.0 years).

Results

Maternal intake of fatty acids during lactation was not associated with the risk of type 1 diabetes in the offspring. After adjusting for putative confounders, maternal total consumption of red meat and meat products during lactation was associated both with increased risk for preclinical [hazard ratio (HR) 1.19, 95 % CI 1.02–1.40, p = 0.038] and clinical type 1 diabetes (HR 1.27, 95 % CI 1.06–1.52, p = 0.025). In particular, consumption of processed meat products showed an association with increased risk for type 1 diabetes (HR 1.23, 95 % CI 1.02–1.48, p = 0.045). Maternal use of vegetable oils was associated with increased risk for preclinical type 1 diabetes (HR 1.21, 95 % CI 1.03–1.41, p = 0.023).

Conclusions

Maternal consumption of red meat, especially processed meat, during lactation may increase the risk of type 1 diabetes.

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Acknowledgments

The work was supported by the Doctoral Program in Public Health, the Academy of Finland (Grants 63672, 79685, 79686, 80846, 126813, 201988, 210632), the Finnish Diabetes Association, the Finnish Diabetes Research Foundation, the Finnish Pediatric Research Foundation, the Häme Foundation of the Finnish Culture Fund, the Juho Vainio Foundation, the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation, Medical Research Funds, Turku, Oulu and Tampere University Hospitals (Grants 9F089, 9G087, 9H092, 9J147, 9K149, 9L117, 9M114, 9N086, 9P057), Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF; Grants 197032, 4-1998-274, 4-1999-731 and 4-2001-435), Novo Nordisk Foundation and EU Biomed 2 Program (BMH4-CT98-3314). We express our gratitude to the children and parents who participated. We want to thank the DIPP research nurses, doctors, nutritionists and laboratory staff for excellent collaboration over the years. We acknowledge Lars Stene for his valuable suggestions to improve the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

Sari Niinistö, Hanna-Mari Takkinen, Liisa Uusitalo, Jenna Rautanen, Noora Vainio, Suvi Ahonen, Jaakko Nevalainen, Michael G Kenward, Mirka Lumia, Olli Simell, Riitta Veijola, Jorma Ilonen, Mikael Knip and Suvi M. Virtanen declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard

The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Universities of Tampere and Oulu.

Human and animal rights disclosure

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008.

Informed consent disclosure

Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Correspondence to S. Niinistö.

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Niinistö, S., Takkinen, HM., Uusitalo, L. et al. Maternal intake of fatty acids and their food sources during lactation and the risk of preclinical and clinical type 1 diabetes in the offspring. Acta Diabetol 52, 763–772 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00592-014-0673-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00592-014-0673-0

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