Child diabetes linked to divorce

Children are at an increased risk of developing diabetes if they encounter divorce or other family traumas.

That is according to new Swedish research, which suggests that there is a link between the psychological stress of watching parents go through a marital separation and the development of the condition.

A team led by Johnny Ludvigsson, professor and senior physician at the University Hospital in Lindkoping, Sweden, studied 17,000 children over a ten-year-period, the Ostgota-Correspondenten newspaper reports.

It was found that stress from familial disruption could lead to children being overweight, which in turn increases the chance of developing diabetes.

Professor Ludvigsson noted that this study is the first to establish a link between the development of antibodies against insulin-producing cells and psychological stress within a family.

According to a recent government report, the levels of obesity and diabetes in the UK is on the up and that in 2005 obesity rates were the highest in Europe.

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