Maternal depression during pregnancy may put babies at risk of type 1 diabetes

Children born to mothers who had depression and/or anxiety during pregnancy appear to have a heightened risk of developing type 1 diabetes, as shown in a study.

The population-based cohort study included a total of 1,807,809 offspring born in Sweden during 2002–2019. Researchers used national registers to collect data on diagnosis or medication prescription for depression/anxiety in and around pregnancy, as well as incident cases of type 1 diabetes (defined as diagnosis or insulin treatment).

Analyses were performed using flexible parametric and Cox regression models. Additionally, familial confounding was taken into account using paternal exposure as a negative control and by comparing offspring exposed to maternal depression/anxiety with their unexposed siblings.

Results showed that the presence of depression/anxiety during pregnancy was associated with a 21-percent increase in the risk of type 1 diabetes after, but not before, 8 years of age among children (adjusted hazard ratio HR [aHR], 1.21, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.03–1.42).

When timing of exposure was explored, depression/anxiety occurring only during pregnancy remained associated with increased risk of type 1 diabetes (aHR, 1.24, 95 percent CI, 0.96–1.60), whereas depression/anxiety occurring only before pregnancy was not associated with a risk increase (aHR, 0.91, 95 percent CI, 0.64–1.30).

Associations were close to the null for paternal depression/anxiety (aHR, 0.95, 95 percent CI, 0.72–1.25), and point estimates were above 1 in sibling comparisons, although with wide CIs (aHR, 1.36, 95 percent CI, 0.82–2.26).

The findings on paternal negative control and sibling comparisons indicate that the results cannot entirely be explained by familial confounding.