Family psychological stress early in life and development of type 1 diabetes: The ABIS prospective study

Abstract

Aims: This study investigated whether psychological stress in the family during the child's first year of life are associated with the risk of childhood type 1 diabetes (T1D). According to the beta-cell stress hypothesis all factors that increase the need for, or the resistance to, insulin may be regarded as risk factors for T1D. Methods: Among 8921 children from the general population with questionnaire data from one parent at child's birth and at 1 year of age, 42 cases of T1D were identified up to 11-13 years of age. Additionally 15 cases with multiple diabetes-related autoantibodies were detected in a sub-sample of 2649 children. Results: Cox regression analyses showed no significant associations between serious life events (hazard ratio 0.7 for yes vs. no [95% CI 0.2-1.9], p= 0.47), parenting stress (0.9 per scale score [0.5-1.7], p= 0.79), or parental dissatisfaction (0.6 per scale score [0.3-1.2], p= 0.13) during the first year of life and later diagnosis of T1D, after controlling for socioeconomic, demographic, and diabetes-related factors. Inclusion of children with multiple autoantibodies did not alter the results. Conclusions: No association between psychological stress early in life and development of T1D could be confirmed. © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.