Association Between Maternal Mood Disorders and Schizophrenia and the Risk of Type 1 Diabetes in Offspring: A Nationwide Cohort Study

Objective: Our study aimed to determine whether mothers with bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, or schizoaffective disorder affected the risk of type 1 diabetes (T1D) in their offspring. Methods: We conducted a nationwide cohort study by using data from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database and the Maternal and Child Health Database from 2004 to 2018. A total of 2,556,640 mother-child pairs were identified. Cox proportional hazards models were used to compare the risk of T1D between children born to mothers with mood disorders and schizophrenia and those without. Results: No significant difference in risk of T1D was observed between the offspring of mothers with major psychiatric disorders and those without (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of 0.86 with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.58–1.24). In subgroup analysis, we found an aHR of 1.81 with a 95% CI of 0.83–3.82 in the maternal bipolar disorder on the risk of T1D in offspring and an aHR of 0.87 (95% CI: 0.59–1.25) in maternal major depressive disorder. In the schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder group, aHR cannot be obtained due to lesser than three events in the analysis. Conclusion: The risk of T1D in offspring of mothers with mood disorders and schizophrenia was not significant. However, children born to mothers with bipolar disorder may have a tendency to develop T1D. The relationship between maternal psychiatric disorders and the risk of T1D in offspring warrants further investigation in studies with longer follow-up periods.