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

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.