Influence of Genomic Ancestry and Other Traditional Risk Factors on the Prevalence of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy in Admixed Individuals With Type 1 Diabetes in Brazil: A Pioneer Multicenter Study

Aims To assess the influence of genomic ancestry (GA) and other traditional risk factors on the prevalence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) in admixed Brazilian individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Methods This cross‐sectional, multicenter, pioneer study was conducted in 14 public clinics in 10 Brazilian cities. From 1760 individuals, 1732 were included (98.4%), aged 29.9 ± 11.9 years, diabetes duration 15.4 ± 9.2 years, 968 females (55.9%), 939 (55.7%) self‐reported as White. DPN was evaluated by the validated neuropathy disability score (NDS) and neuropathy symptoms score (NSS). Results The prevalence of DPN was 14.8%. In hierarchical multivariate logistic regression, the covariates associated with DPN were age, diabetes duration, HbA1c, type of health care insurance, insulin therapeutic regimen, number of yearly clinical visits, low exercise practice rates, hypertension, dyslipidemia, heart rate, statin use, uric acid levels, lower health‐related quality of life, presence of diabetic retinopathy, and amputations. Among the sociodemographic characteristics, African GA, a contemporary emerging factor, showed the highest association. Conclusions DPN was related to several comorbidities, diabetes‐related complications, and lower health‐related quality of life. These individuals were young, implying a high lifetime cost of this disease. The association with the emerging factor African GA warrants further studies involving other admixed populations.