Dia Spectr
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Purchase Article
Right arrow View Shopping Cart
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Arar, N. H.
Right arrow Articles by Abboud, H. E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Arar, N. H.
Right arrow Articles by Abboud, H. E.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
Diabetes Spectrum 16:136-142, 2003
© American Diabetes Association ®, Inc., 2003

Feature Article

Familial Clustering of Diabetic Nephropathy: Perceptions and Risk Recognition Among Mexican-American Patients With a Family History of Diabetes

Nedal H. Arar, PhD, Helen P. Hazuda, PhD, Rosemarie Plaetke, PhD, Valeria Sartorio, Mazen Y. Arar, MD and Hanna E. Abboud, MD

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Nedal Arar, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine/Nephrology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 7703 Floyd Curl Dr., San Antonio, TX 78229-3900, or e-mail him at ararn{at}uthscsa.edu.

Abstract

Objective. Diabetic nephropathy (DN) clusters in families with type 2 diabetes, suggesting a genetic susceptibility for its development and progression. We investigated DN probands’ and relatives’: 1) perceptions of the causes and clustering of DN and 2) recognition of their genetic susceptibility and of other selected risk factors.

Research methods. Structured interviews were conducted with 246 Mexican-American participants in the Family Investigation of Nephropathy and Diabetes (FIND) study using the Contextual Assessment Approach Questionnaire (CAA-Q). A total of 105 (43%) DN probands and 141 (57%) first-degree relatives were enrolled. Subjects averaged 56 years of age (range: 33–76; SD: 9.04); 62% were females. Data analysis included both qualitative and quantitative methods using Atlas.ti and SPSS 9.0 software packages.

Results. Eighty-three percent of subjects recognized that type 2 diabetes clusters in their family, while 63% asserted that DN did not. Fifty-three percent of diabetic relatives presented with a high urinary albumin/creatinine ratio (>=0.03) and were unaware of having DN (P <=0.05). All subjects viewed DN as a component of type 2 diabetes and not a separate disease entity. More than 80% of the subjects considered ethnicity but not age of onset or sex as risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes or DN.

Conclusion. Participants viewed type 2 diabetes and DN in the context of health behaviors related to their everyday activities. They considered DN to be part of diabetes with no direct genetic predisposition and not a separate entity. Diabetic relatives under-estimated their risks for developing DN and were not engaged in preventive measures to reduce these risks. We recommend that health professionals consider these findings when interacting with high-risk diabetic patients. DN is a serious complication of diabetes that requires special care, education, prevention, and management.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?




HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Diabetes Diabetes Care Clinical Diabetes Diabetes Spectrum
Copyright © 2003 by the American Diabetes Association.