Season of birth and the risk of type 2 diabetes in adulthood: a prospective cohort study of 0.5 million Chinese adults
Open accessAbstract
AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Season of birth as a surrogate for potential environmental exposure during fetal development and early postnatal life has shown an inconsistent association with adult type 2 diabetes in white populations living in high-latitude regions. The present study aimed to examine the association between birth seasonality and risk of adult type 2 diabetes in Chinese individuals living across wide regions of low latitude and lower to middle latitude. METHODS: Participants from the China Kadoorie Biobank were enrolled during 2004-2008 and followed up until 31 December 2013. After excluding participants with cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes at baseline, the present study included 189,153 men and 272,058 women aged 30-79 years. We used multivariable Cox proportional hazards model to estimate the HR and 95% CI. RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 7.2 years (3.3 million person-years), we documented 8784 incident cases of type 2 diabetes. In the whole cohort, compared with summer-born participants, the adjusted HRs (95% CIs) were 1.09 (1.02, 1.16), 1.08 (1.02, 1.15) and 1.09 (1.02, 1.15) for those who were born in Spring, Autumn and Winter, respectively. The association was consistent in both men and women and across subgroups defined by residence and lifestyle factors later in life. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: In this large prospective study, participants born in summer had a lower risk of adult type 2 diabetes compared with other seasons of birth, suggesting exposures in early life with some degree of seasonal variation might influence the risk of adult diabetes.
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A recent study also found that Chinese individuals born outside of summer had a 9% increased chance of developing adult T2D than individuals born in summer.
“A recent study also found that Chinese individuals born outside of summer had a 9% increased chance of developing adult T2D than individuals born in summer.83”
From A review of current trends with type 2 diabetes epidemiology, aetiology, pathogenesis, treatments and future perspectives (2021) · cites this paper as [83]
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References 20 · Cited by 18
- Authors
- on behalf of the China Kadoorie Biobank Collaborative Group, Si, J., Yu, C., Guo, Y., Bian, Z., Li, X., Yang, L., Chen, Y., Sun, H., Yu, B., Chen, J., Chen, Z., Lv, J., & Li, L.
- Affiliations
- Peking University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College (CN)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Lv, Jun
- Li, Liming
- ORCID
- Venue
- Diabetologia
- Published
- 2017-01-07
- Volume
- 60
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 836-842
- ISSN
- 0012-186X (ISSN-L)
- 1432-0428
- PMC
- PMC6521727
- OpenAlex
- W2569196375
- Cited by
- 18
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3
- FWCI
- 1.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Diabetologia (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (088158/Z/09/Z, 104085/Z/14/Z)
- Kadoorie Charitable Foundation
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (81373082, 81390544)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Birth, Development, and Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Obstetrics and Gynecology › Gestational Diabetes Research and Management
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Diabetes, Cardiovascular Risks, and Lipoproteins
- Keywords
- season of birth, type 2 diabetes, birth seasonality, fetal programming, early life exposure, Chinese adults, China Kadoorie Biobank
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, China, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Seasons, Multivariate Analysis, Proportional Hazards Models, Asian People, Waist Circumference
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