Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune disesae and one of the most common chronic diseases in children. Today there is no prevention or cure. Children with type 1 diabete needs lifelong treatment with insulin. Type 1 diabetes is considered to be caused by an autoimmune process, the body's immune system attacks the insulin producing beta-cella in the pancreas. During this process, islet autoantibodies can be detected in the blood. If one or several of these markes are found in the blood the risk of developing the disease has increased.

Several studies have screened children both at birth for genetic risk for type 1 diabetes and for islet autoantibodies frequently during childhood. Agree to participate with your child in this kind of research is not always an easy decision. Previous research have found parents to be anxious and to treat their child as ill. However, others argure that parents participating in type 1 diabetes studies can be thought about signs and symptoms and serious complications can be avoied.

My interest in research have been to investigate families reactions and experiance when participate in screeningstudies with their child. We have examened parents level of anxiety after five years participation and factors releted to their anxiety. We have also investigated parents overall study satisfaction and factor associated with study visit compliance in these type 1 diabetes studies.