Diabetes Risk Factors
Risk factors for Type 2 diabetes include:
- older age
- obesity
- a family history of diabetes
- a prior history of gestational diabetes
- impaired glucose tolerance
- physical inactivity and race/ethnicity
- African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, American Indians, and some Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are at particularly high risk for Type 2 diabetes.
Risk factors are less well defined for Type 1 diabetes than for Type 2 diabetes, but autoimmune, genetic, and environmental factors are involved in developing this type of diabetes.
