title: The belgrade childhood diabetes study: association of infections and vaccinations on diabetes in childhood.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Epidemiology, School of Medicine, Belgrade University, Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sipetić
authors.forename: Hristina
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vlajinac
authors.forename: Nikola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kocev
authors.forename: Slobodan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Radmanović
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016233:Immunotherapy, Active; D007223:Infant; D007239:Infections / Q000150:complications*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D015022:Yugoslavia