Maternal Type 1 Diabetes during pregnancy linked to Atopic Dermatitis Risk in Offspring: Study

A large population-based cohort study found that maternal type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) was associated with a slightly increased prevalence of Atopic Dermatitis (AD) in children. Although the effect size was modest, the findings suggest that maternal autoimmune status may play a role in shaping early-life atopic risk in offspring.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is one of the most common chronic inflammatory skin conditions affecting children globally. The disease often begins early in life and can cause persistent itching, dry skin, sleep disturbances, and increased susceptibility to skin infections. Studies have long suspected that maternal health conditions during pregnancy may influence the development of allergic diseases in children, but the role of maternal T1DM has remained unclear.

Thus, this nationwide retrospective cohort study used electronic medical records from Clalit Health Services, Israel. The study included more than 311,000 singleton live births between January 2010 and December 2023. Among the 311,708 mother-child pairs analyzed, 1,104 children were born to mothers diagnosed with type 1 diabetes during pregnancy. Then, this study examined the prevalence of atopic dermatitis in the children while accounting for multiple maternal and demographic factors.

The findings showed that atopic dermatitis was slightly more common among children born to mothers with T1DM when compared with those whose mothers did not have the condition. Approximately 29% of children exposed to maternal T1DM developed AD, when compared with 26% in the non-diabetic group.

After adjusting for variables including maternal age, smoking status, socioeconomic status, gestational age, infant sex, ethnicity, mode of delivery, maternal allergic rhinitis, and follow-up duration, maternal T1DM remained independently associated with a higher risk of childhood eczema. Statistical analysis indicated a 15% increase in the odds of developing AD among offspring of mothers with T1DM.

Despite the increase in risk being relatively small, the findings may provide important insight into how maternal autoimmune and metabolic conditions influence immune system development in early life. These results found no significant association between maternal blood sugar control (hemoglobin A1c levels above 6.5%) and eczema risk in offspring. This suggests that the autoimmune characteristics of type 1 diabetes itself, rather than glucose levels alone, may contribute to altered immune programming during fetal development.

The study also identified male sex, shorter gestational age, maternal smoking, maternal allergic rhinitis, and higher socioeconomic status as additional independent risk factors for childhood atopic dermatitis which were associated with increased AD prevalence. Overall, maternal autoimmune diseases such as T1DM may alter inflammatory signaling or immune regulation during pregnancy in ways that affect long-term immune responses in children.

Source:

Weissmann, S., Amitai, N., Honig, E., Eshkoli, T., & Horev, A. (2026). Maternal type 1 diabetes mellitus and atopic dermatitis in offspring: A nationwide cohort study. JAAD International, 26, 73–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdin.2026.03.013