Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (2007;298(12):1420–1428) examined whether omega-3 fatty acid intake was associated with the risk of developing islet autoimmunity in children at elevated risk for type 1 diabetes.
Children were considered “high risk” if they had a parent or sibling with type 1 diabetes or carried a high-risk HLA genotype. The analysis included two complementary study designs:
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A longitudinal observational study following 1,770 high-risk children
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A case–cohort study involving 244 high-risk children
Both studies assessed dietary omega-3 intake as well as omega-3 fatty acid levels in red blood cell membranes. Across both groups, children with higher omega-3 intake—and those with higher omega-3 content in red blood cell membranes—were less likely to develop islet autoimmunity.
Islet autoimmunity was defined as the presence of autoantibodies to insulin, glutamic acid decarboxylase, or insulinoma-associated antigen-2 on two consecutive study visits, with persistence of autoantibody positivity or progression to diabetes at final follow-up.
Taken together, these findings suggest that higher omega-3 fatty acid intake was associated with a reduced risk of islet autoimmunity in genetically susceptible children.
