Results of a new study support the notion that common infections may trigger type 1 diabetes in children and young adults.

Specifically, UK researchers uncovered evidence of clustering among young diabetes patients.

A relative high number of cases in a small area and within a limited period - space-time clustering -is “consistent” with an environmental component in disease development, “possibly linked to infections,” Dr. Richard J. Q. McNally, of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and colleagues explain in the journal Diabetologia.

The team used data from a population-based register in Yorkshire to look for evidence of space-time clustering of diabetes among subjects younger than age 30.

Included in the analysis were two data sets of patients diagnosed with type 1 diabetes: 3019 children up to 14 years of age who resided in Yorkshire between 1978 and 2002; and 989 patients between 15 and 29 years who resided in West Yorkshire between 1991 and 2002.

In the first group, significant space-time clustering, based on place and time of diagnosis, was confirmed for the children between 10 and 14 years old. In the second group, space-time clustering was observed for those between 15 and 19 years old.

“These findings suggest that infections may precipitate type 1 diabetes in a limited number of susceptible people,” McNally commented to Reuters Health. “Other environmental factors are also likely to be involved.”

Although the findings suggest an environmental cause, the investigators note that the study cannot confirm if the environmental effects are direct or if they merely unmask latent diabetes.

SOURCE: Diabetologia, July 2006.