Author/Editor		Uršič-Bratina, N; Battelino, T; Kržišnik, C; Laron-Kenet, T; Ashkenazi, I; Laron, Z
Title		Seasonality of birth in children (0-14 years) with type 1 diabetes mellitus in Slovenia
Type		članek
Source		J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab
Vol. and No.		Letnik 14, št. 1
Publication year		2001
Volume		str. 47-52
Language		eng
Abstract		The aim of this study was to find out whether there is seasonality of month of birth of children with diabetes in Slovenia and if so whether it differs from that of the general population. A cohort of 849 children and adolescents (0-14 years) with type 1 diabetes mellitus born between 1956 and 1998 were included in the study. Monthly and seasonal patterns of birth of the patients with diabetes were compared with the pattern of normal live births (n = 1,345,921) and the pattern of disease onset. Statistical analysis was made using Student's t-test to compare the means between the four seasons of the year, and single cosinor analysis for a period of 12 months. The children and adolescents with diabetes had a statistically significant different seasonality of month nf birth compared to that of the general population, and an opposite pattern from the seasonality of month of onset of disease. The observations made are in accordance with observations made recently in other countries and support the hypothesis that a virus infection transmitted by the mother to the fetus during the annual viral epidemic induces the autoimmune process in the pancreatic (3-cells in genetically susceptible individuals who will subsequently develop clinical diabetes during childhood.
Descriptors		DIABETES MELLITUS, INSULIN-DEPENDENT BIRTH RATE VIRUS DISEASES CHILD SEASONS SLOVENIA