Diabetes. The risk of becoming diabetic for an
individual with a positive family history of diabetes
varies with the age of the proband when the
diagnosis was made and the type of diabetes. A
a recent review concluded that having a parent with
non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM)
increased by two- to fourfold an offspring’s chance
of developing this condition, and that in this respect
concordance between siblings appeared stronger
than that between parent and child (5). In a study in
northern Sudan, a family history of diabetes was
2.3 times more often reported among diabetics than
non-diabetics