Mexican researcher and his Dutch professor continue their work and will now develop a new family-focused approach to type 2 diabetes prevention and care.

Omar Silverman, a medical doctor from Mexico, is set – under supervision of his Dutch professor Daniel Witte – to continue their work in the field of diabetes and family relations: now, they will develop a new family-focused approach to type 2 diabetes prevention and care.

They work in the international environment of the Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus, and their current research has just been funded by a grant of DKK 1.2 million from the Danish Diabetes Academy.

Omar Silverman’s postdoctoral research project builds on previous work showing how family relations affect type 2 diabetes risk. The results showed how different combinations of familial diabetes increased the risk of type 2 diabetes, especially if the family member is diagnosed at a younger age. The results also showed that spouses were more similar in their risk behaviours than in the biological mechanisms preceding type 2 diabetes.

His plan now is to investigate how a broader knowledge of family disease history can improve the identification of incident type 2 diabetes for the entire Danish population. He will also conduct a cross-sectional study focusing on measuring spousal synchrony in glucose physiology and behaviours in couples in which one partner is living with type 2 diabetes.

The project consists of two work packages (WPs):

• WP1: Development and validation of a population-wide register-based diabetes risk estimation tool that harnesses data on familial connections. WP1 will use routine diagnostic, socio-economic and prescription information on individuals and their relatives to estimate family-level and individual-level diabetes risk predictions, assessing feasibility and performance. The guiding hypothesis (H1) is that by considering broad long-term health trajectories, not only at the individual level but also at the level of couples and nuclear families, an individual and family diabetes risk prediction can be made for the entire Danish population on the basis of existing register data.
  
  WP1 includes both the development of a register-based prediction model and its internal and external validation.
  
• WP2: This study will explore how diabetes care and lifestyle management can be improved if it is targeted with regard to its circadian timing and involves the close social environment. In continuation of previous work, it will focus on the spouse, the closest relation most people have. WP2 will be a cross-sectional study aiming to assess synchrony (co-variation) in glucose variability and behaviours, using wearable devices in couples in which one of the partners is living with type 2 diabetes. The guiding hypothesis (H2) is that a higher degree of spousal behavioural synchrony is related to better glycaemic control in the partner with type 2 diabetes after adjustment for individual-level confounders (e.g. diabetes duration, BMI) and medication.
  

Facts
José Omar Silverman Retana MD, PhD
Awarded DKK 1.2 million by the Danish Diabetes Academy
Project title: Improving type 2 diabetes prevention and care. The potential of family relations
Research institution: Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus
Principal investigator: Professor Daniel Rinse Witte 

Contact
José Omar Silverman Retana MD, PhD
E-mail: jossil@rm.dk 
Tel: +45 60177914

Danish Diabetes Academy
Managing Director Tore Christiansen
E-mail: tore.christiansen@rsyd.dk
Tel: +45 29 64 67 64