December 15, 2001
Other
Question from Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA:
Why do girls get type 1 diabetes earlier than boys?
Answer:
I’m not sure that this is true because such evidence as there is on gender and age of onset (and it is pretty thin) points in the opposite direction. The HLA allele DQB1 0201 is slightly more frequent in boys in some races, and this in turn predisposes to an earlier onset of type 1A (autoimmune) than in girls, not the opposite.
Update:
Looking a little further into this question, it appears to have been definitively reviewed early this year [2001] in Diabetes and gender [Diabetologia, Abstract Volume 44 Issue 1 (2001) pp 3-15, E. A.M. Gale, K. M. Gillespie]. In addition in the national DAISY study (Diabetes and Autoimmune Immune Syndromes in Youth) there is a little evidence that girls in the U.S. do get clinical diabetes at an earlier age than boys. This seems to be linked to the earlier puberty in girls and the insulin resistance that is part of the hormonal changes at that time.
DOB
