The belgrade childhood diabetes study: Association of infections and vaccinations on diabetes in childhood

Abstract

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate whether individual infections or combination of infections or vaccination affect the risk of developing diabetes in childhood. METHODS: A case-control study was conducted in Belgrade during the period between 1994 and 1997. A total of 105 recent onset diabetics were compared with 210 controls chosen among children with skin disease (the first control group). Cases and controls were individually matched by age (±1 year), sex, and place of residence. Eighty-six diabetic children were also compared with their brothers/sisters (the second control group). RESULTS: After adjustment for confounding variables, independent association with diabetes was found for infections during the 6 months preceding the onset of the disease, when cases were compared with both the first control group (OR = 4.23, 95% CI, 1.95-9.17, p<0.001) and the second control group (OR = 4.68, 95% CI, 2.09-10.47, p<0.001), and for regular vaccination when cases were compared with the first control group (OR = 0.08, 95% CI, 0.01-0.50, p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: The results obtained support the hypotheses that infections play a role in the development of type 1 diabetes and that regular vaccination has a preventive effect. © 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.