Mortality and morbidity in offspring of mothers with diabetes compared with a population group: a Danish cohort study with 8–35 years of follow‐up

Aims To assess mortality and morbidity in the offspring of mothers with diabetes compared with a control cohort of offspring of mothers without diabetes. Methods The mortality rate, percentage of days admitted to hospital, diagnostic categories and incidence of diabetes mellitus among 691 offspring of mothers with diabetes were compared with a control group of 168 831 offspring not exposed to maternal diabetes. Offspring of mothers with diabetes were identified from the North Jutland Pregnancy database (521 Type 1; 34 Type 2; 136 gestational diabetes) born between 1976 and 2003. Outcome data were retrieved from the National Registry of Patients with follow‐up until 31 December 2011. In a subgroup with the longest hospital stay we reviewed hospital records for clinical details until 2016. Results Mortality was 1.45% in the diabetes group compared with 1.36% in the control group. In the first 2 years, offspring exposed to diabetes spent significantly more time in hospital than the control offspring, but this difference faded to an insignificant difference of 0.04% of time spent in hospital between age 2 and 8 years. The offspring of mothers with diabetes had a sixfold increased risk of developing diabetes mellitus. Conclusions The offspring of mothers with and without diabetes had almost identical mortality. The increased morbidity was restricted to the first 2 years of life, and was primarily attributable to a few individuals with very severe but probably non‐diabetes‐related disease burden. The large majority of offspring of mothers with diabetes experienced health conditions similar to those not exposed to diabetes. What's new? Long‐term mortality was not higher in offspring of mothers with diabetes compared with offspring of mothers without diabetes. In the first 2 years of life, offspring of mothers with diabetes spent a higher percentage of time in hospital. After the first 2 years there was no significant difference in hospital admissions. The higher morbidity appeared to be primarily attributable to a few individuals with very severe disease burden. The disease pattern did not differ significantly between offspring of mothers with and without diabetes. The vast majority of offspring of mothers with diabetes experienced health conditions similar to those of offspring of mothers without diabetes.