title: Family psychological stress early in life and development of type 1 diabetes: the ABIS prospective study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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.
authors.affiliation: Div of Pediatrics and Diabetes Research Centre, Dept of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. maria.nygren@liu.se
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nygren
authors.forename: Johnny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ludvigsson
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Carstensen
authors.forename: Anneli
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sepa Frostell
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology*