Stuttering in adolescents linked to increased risk of Type 2 Diabetes

Dr Avishai M. Tsur, MD, of the Israeli Defense Forces Medical Corps, Israel, and colleagues conducted a nationwide population-based study to investigate the association between stuttering in adolescence and incident type 2 diabetes in young adulthood. Upon evaluation, they found that those who stuttered had a 30% greater risk for developing type 2 diabetes overall and more than double the risk for developing type 2 diabetes before the age of 40 years, compared with those who didn't stutter.

The authors noted that this association may be due to social anxiety that causes chronic stress and increased secretion of cortisol thus, increasing the risk for type 2 diabetes independently from obesity. They also addressed the link between dysregulation of brain dopamine metabolism with stuttering and onset of type 2 diabetes.

It was a nationwide population-based study that included a total of 1,224,494 males and 889,311 females for military service eligibility in Israel at ages 16-20 years from 1980 through 2013. Among them, researchers identified about 4443 men and 503 women with stuttering. They used the Israeli National Diabetes Registry to determine the diabetes status of each individual. They used regression models adjusted for socioeconomic variables, cognitive performance, coexisting morbidities, and adolescent BMI to assess the relationship between stuttering and incidence of diabetes.

Key findings of the study were:

• The researchers noted that among men, incident cases of type 2 diabetes developed in 3.6% with stuttering versus 2.1% without stuttering (adjusted odds ratio 1.3).

• They also noted that the association persisted when unaffected brothers of men with stuttering were used as the reference group (adjusted OR=1.5) or when the analysis included only adolescents with unimpaired health at baseline (adjusted OR=1.4).

• They reported that the association was stronger in later birth cohorts with an adjusted OR of 2.4 (1.4-4.1) for cases of type 2 diabetes before age 40.

• In females, they noted that the incident type 2 diabetes occurred in 1.4% with and 1.1% without stuttering during the study period. The difference was not significant, with an adjusted OR of 1.03.

The authors concluded, "Adolescent stuttering is associated with an increased risk for early-onset type 2 diabetes among men".

For further information:

https://academic.oup.com/jcem/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1210/clinem/dgaa988/6101161