Diabetes is often thought of as an individual condition, but growing evidence suggests it can affect entire households. Lifestyle habits, shared environments and genetics mean that when one person is at risk, others living under the same roof may be too. New research presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Annual Meeting in Vienna showed that analysing routine health records at a household level could help identify people at risk of diabetes much earlier than current approaches.

The study focused on adults with prediabetes and examined the health profiles of people living with them, including other adults and children. It found that diabetes risk frequently clusters within households, with many family members showing warning signs such as excess weight or abnormal blood sugar levels. Some adults living with someone who had prediabetes were already showing signs of type 2 diabetes, while many children had risk factors that could place them in danger later in life.

This approach could help health systems move from treating individuals to supporting whole families. Identifying risk early creates opportunities for shared lifestyle changes, earlier testing and prevention programmes before diabetes develops. It may also help uncover undiagnosed cases, particularly in people who feel well and would not otherwise seek testing

Overall, the findings highlight a simple but powerful idea: preventing diabetes may be more effective when families are supported together, rather than one person at a time.