The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young, or TEDDY, is an international study to discover the causes of Type 1 Diabetes. It is known that children who get type 1 diabetes have certain kinds of genes. It is also known that other children, with these same genes, have a higher risk for developing diabetes. However, not all children with this higher risk actually develop diabetes. The question is why? The belief is that there is something in the environment that “triggers” or causes a child with these genes to get diabetes. TEDDY is trying to determine what these triggers might be.
TEDDY, which began in 2004, closely monitors children with this higher genetic risk from birth to age 15. It has been found that children who participated in TEDDY and were later diagnosed with T1D, had fewer complications such as diabetic ketoacidosis at the time of diagnosis and were diagnosed earlier than children not participating in the study. While this study is still active, it is no longer recruiting participants.
Updated 2/17/19
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