Background: Increasingly, environmental factors are being shown to play a role in the etiology of type 1 diabetes (T1D). One geographical feature that exerts a major effect on climate but whose relationship with T1D incidence has not been studied is distance from the sea. This study investigated any possible relationship between distance from the sea and the incidence of T1D.
Methods: Spearman correlation analysis was performed to investigate the relationship between the incidence of T1D (determined using data from the DiaMond Project) and distance from the sea. This was followed by multivariate analyses to adjust for potential cofounders.
Results: A significant negative association was found between T1D incidence and shortest distance from sea (r = -0.251, P = 0.01235), mean hours of sunshine (r = -0.325, P = 0.002), and mean temperature (r = -0.224, P = 0.046), and a positive association was found between T1D incidence and latitude (r = 0.434, P = 0.0001). Multivariate analysis (generalized linear model) showed that both distance from the sea and latitude were independently associated with the incidence of T1D. The association of distance from sea and the incidence of T1D remained significant even after adjusting for mean temperature (P = 0.002) and mean hours of sunshine (P = 0.005).
Conclusions: The data show that there is a negative correlation between distance from the sea and the incidence of T1D, which was independent of latitude, mean temperature, and mean hours of sunshine. This suggests that environmental factors associated with climatic conditions may influence the risk of T1D.
摘要: 背景 环境因素在1型糖尿病的病因中扮演着越来越重要的角色。离海距离是一种地理特征，它对气候有重要的影响，但是目前还没有人研究过它与1型糖尿病发病率之间的关系。这项研究调查了离海距离与1型糖尿病发病率之间的关系。 方法 使用Spearman相关分析，研究1型糖尿病发病率(利用DiaMond Project数据计算确定)与离海距离之间的关系。为了校正潜在混杂因素造成的影响，进行了多变量分析。 结果 1型糖尿病发病率与最短离海距离(r = −0.251，P = 0.01235)、平均日照小时数(r = −0.325，P = 0.002)以及平均温度(r = −0.224，P = 0.046)之间都存在显著的负相关，而与纬度(r = 0.434，P = 0.0001)之间存在显著的正相关。多变量分析(广义线性模型)结果表明，离海距离以及纬度都与1型糖尿病发病率独立相关。即使在校正平均温度(P = 0.002)与平均日照小时数(P = 0.005)后，离海距离与1型糖尿病发病率之间仍然存在显著的相关性。 结论 研究数据表明，离海距离与1型糖尿病发病率之间存在负相关，这种相关性并不依赖于纬度、平均温度以及平均日照小时数。这表明与气候条件相关的环境因素可能会影响1型糖尿病的发生风险。.
Keywords: 1型糖尿病; distance from the sea; environmental factors; type 1 diabetes; 环境因素; 离海距离.
© 2018 Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.