January 23, 2007
Research: Causes and Prevention
Question from Sacramento, California, USA:
My son just graduated from high school. As I looked back through his school photos, I realized that at least four of the 24 kids in his second grade class have developed type 1 over the past eight years. Is there anyone who might be interested in researching this unusually high number? It seems like it might somehow reveal some causal factors in the development of type 1. Our doctor said that it wasn’t statistically significant, but I still think looking into this might yield something valuable.
Answer:
There have been “clusters” of diabetes known for many decades and was one of the principle reasons for thinking about environmental triggers such as viruses. The time to do such research, however, was just at the time of diagnosis, so it may be too late to use this observation for any real benefit. Your own doctor could also be correct that this was just a statistical anomaly and, therefore, there will be statistically fewer kids with diabetes in this neighborhood for the next few years to “balance out” those with diabetes.
SB
