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Childhood Bereavement and Type 1 Diabetes: a D anish National Register Study
Author(s) -
Virk Jasveer,
Ritz Beate,
Li Jiong,
Obel Carsten,
Olsen Jørn
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
paediatric and perinatal epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.667
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1365-3016
pISSN - 0269-5022
DOI - 10.1111/ppe.12247
Subject(s) - medicine , register (sociolinguistics) , pediatrics , gerontology , philosophy , linguistics
Background Death of a close family member such as a parent or a sibling can cause prolonged stress and changes in the family structure that may have extensive social and health effects on a young child. The aim of this paper is to examine the rate of type 1 diabetes following bereavement due to death of a first‐degree family member in early life. Methods We used data from the D anish C ivil Registration S ystem ( CRS ) to identify singleton births in D enmark born 1 J anuary 1980 through 31 D ecember 2005, n = 1 740 245 and their next of kin. We categorised children as exposed to bereavement if they lost a mother, father or sibling from age 5 years onwards, the remaining children were considered unexposed. Children were followed until first diagnosis of diabetes, death, emigration, or 31 D ecember 2010. We estimated incidence rate ratios ( IRRs ) from birth using log‐linear Poisson regression models with person‐years as an offset variable. Exposed children were followed up for an average of 9.1 years [standard deviation ( SD ) 6.7] and unexposed children were followed up for an average of 12.3 years ( SD 7.3). Results In our sample 94 943 children were exposed to bereavement, and 6110 cases of type 1 diabetes were identified. Bereavement was associated with an increased rate of type 1 diabetes when exposure onset began after 11 years of age (adjusted IRR 1.28, 95% confidence interval 1.08, 1.51). Conclusion We found some evidence to indicate an increase in the rate of type 1 diabetes among children exposed to bereavement when exposure occurred after 11 years of age.