Is Diabetes Contagious?

Sharing a household with someone who has the metabolic disorder can greatly increase the risk of developing the condition, a new study show, Newsmax Health reports.

Researchers from the McGill University Health Centre who analyzed several studies determined that spousal diabetes is a risk factor. The findings, published in the British Medical Journal BMC Medicine, may help improve diabetes detection and motivate couples to work together to reduce the risk of developing the condition.

Dr. Kaberi Dasgupta, M.D., with the Research Institute of the MUHC and an associate professor of medicine at McGill University said his team undertook the analysis to determine if diabetes in one partner could lead to diabetes in the other, noting many of the risk behaviors that lead to diabetes — such as poor eating habits and low physical activity — could be common in a household.

The researchers' conclusions were based on an analysis of six studies conducted in different parts of the world that examined diabetes diagnoses involving 75,498 couples.

  "The results of our review suggest that diabetes diagnosis in one spouse may warrant increased surveillance in the other," Dr. Dasgupta said, noting doctors typically track family history of diabetes in patients, but not spousal diabetes.

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