Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Oct;36(7):e3318.
doi: 10.1002/dmrr.3318. Epub 2020 Apr 19.

Birth during the moderate weather seasons is associated with early onset of type 1 diabetes in the Mediterranean area

Adi Adar  1 , Shlomit Shalitin  2   3 , Ori Eyal  3   4 , Neta Loewenthal  5 , Orit Pinhas-Hamiel  3   6   7 , Nehama Zuckerman Levin  8 , Orna Dally-Gottfried  9 , Zohar Landau  3   10 , Amnon Zung  11   12 , Floris Levy-Khademi  12   13 , David Zangen  12   14 , Yardena Tenenbaum-Rakover  15 , Marianna Rachmiel  1   3
Affiliations

Birth during the moderate weather seasons is associated with early onset of type 1 diabetes in the Mediterranean area

Adi Adar et al. Diabetes Metab Res Rev. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

Aim: To assess the association of seasonal and perinatal parameters with early age of type 1 diabetes (T1D) onset.

Methods: A cross-sectional review of all medical records of T1D patients born between the years 1990 and 2005, and diagnosed before/by the age of 10 years, from 13 university-affiliated paediatric medical centres in Israel, was performed. Data included: gender, ethnicity, seasons of birth and disease onset, birth gestational age and weight, and autoimmune diseases of the probands and their first-degree family members. Statistical analysis included the Chi-square test or Mann-Whitney test, as appropriate and multivariate regression analysis.

Results: Enrolled were 1571 T1D patients at a median age of T1D onset 6.9 years (IQR 4.4,8.4); 336 of them presented before 4 years of age. The median age of this group was 2.5 years (IQR 1.7,3.2), and of the 1235 patients who presented after 4 years of age, median presentation age was 7.5 years (IQR 6.1,8.8). Multivariate regression analysis demonstrated that a more recent birth year; OR = 1.06, 95% CI 1.02-1.1, P = 0.003, and birth during the moderate weather months (September, October, March, and April) were significantly associated with younger age at T1D onset; OR = 1.68, 95% CI 1.17-2.4, P = 0.005.

Conclusions: Our novel finding demonstrates the association between younger than 4 years old age at presentation and birth during moderate weather months. The results also support previous reports, that there is a slight increase in the annual incidence of T1D in the youngest age groups.

Keywords: birth season; early onset; type 1 diabetes mellitus.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Ziegler AG, Pflueger M, Winkler C, et al. Accelerated progression from islet autoimmunity to diabetes is causing the escalating incidence of type 1 diabetes in young children. J Autoimmun. 2011;37(1):3-7.
    1. Koton S, IIRSG. Incidence of type 1 diabetes mellitus in the 0- to 17-yr-old Israel population, 1997-2003. Pediatr Diabetes. 2007;8(2):60-66.
    1. Blumenfeld O, Dichtiar R, Shohat T, Israel IRSG. Trends in the incidence of type 1 diabetes among Jews and Arabs in Israel. Pediatr Diabetes. 2014;15(6):422-427.
    1. Israeli Center for Disease Control (ICfDC). Israel Juvenile Diabetes Registry Report 2015. Jerusalem, Israel: Ministry of Health (Israel); 2017.
    1. Egro FM. Why is type 1 diabetes increasing? J Mol Endocrinol. 2013;51(1):R1-R13.

LinkOut - more resources