The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young

The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) study will investigate genetic and genetic-environmental interactions, including gestational infection or other gestational events, as well as childhood infections and other environmental factors after birth in relation to the development of prediabetic autoimmunity and Type I Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM).
TEDDY is a consortium of clinical sites – three US sites, Sweden, Finland and Germany. Sweden is the largest site and 2525 children were recruited to be followed from birth until 15 years of age. The study is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH, grant DK063861) and the websites are https://teddy.epi.usf.edu (international) and https://www.med.lu.se/teddy (in Swedish).

The TEDDY study - The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young - is looking for the causes of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). T1DM used to be called childhood diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes.

Research tells us that children who get diabetes have certain kind of genes. Other children who have these genes are at higher risk for getting diabetes. However, not all children who are higher risk get diabetes. We think that something happens that "triggers" or causes a child with higher risk genes to actually get diabetes. It is the purpose of this study to try and find out what are the triggers that cause children to get diabetes.