Diabetes Study for Mothers

We are conducting a study for mothers of a child 18 years old or younger that lives with type 1 diabetes or of a child with no chronic health conditions or health challenges.

Responses are currently closed on the blog survey. Below is more information about the study.

This survey is part of a new study I’m collaborating on with Psychologist Dr. Tony Madrid.

We want to learn about experiences in early life that may affect risk for chronic health conditions. If these early experiences are more common for children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) or with diabetes-related antibodies, we will assess whether an approach to treatment that has been found to reverse asthma in children might be helpful for T1D, including the possibility of preventing or delaying onset.

This type 1 diabetes perinatal survey has been approved by an institutional review board (IRB), which is an organization that reviews research involving human participants to ensure ethical conduct and participant protection.

Adverse early events and type 1 diabetes

T1D is an autoimmune disease. Diabetes-related antibodies can emerge as early as in the first year of a child’s life and often exist for months or years before the onset of type 1 diabetes and the need for insulin. The length of time antibodies can exist indicates a window of opportunity for prevention.

Children who develop T1D by the time they are in their teens often have antibodies before they are 3 years old ⁽¹⁾Knip, M., Luopajarvi, K., & Harkonen, T. (2017, Nov). Early life origin of type 1 diabetes. Seminars in Immunopathology, 39(6), 653-667. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00281-017-0665-6, ⁽²⁾Ziegler, A. G., Rewers, M., Simell, O., Simell, T., Lempainen, J., Steck, A., Winkler, C., Ilonen, J., Veijola, R., Knip, M., Bonifacio, E., & Eisenbarth, G. S. (2013, Jun 19). Seroconversion to multiple islet autoantibodies and risk of progression to diabetes in children. JAMA, 309(23), 2473-2479. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2013.6285. This suggests that risk factors in early life play an important role in the development of T1D.

Over the past 25 years I’ve been exploring the research and finding that adverse experiences are a risk factor for type 1 diabetes. In particular, adverse events during a mother’s pregnancy, labor, birth and her child’s first years appear to be risk factors for antibody development ⁽³⁾Johnson SB, Lynch KF, Roth R, et al. First-appearing islet autoantibodies for type 1 diabetes in young children: maternal life events during pregnancy and the child’s genetic risk. Diabetologia 2021;64(3):591-602. doi: 10.1007/s00125-020-05344-9 [published Online First: 2021/01/07], ⁽⁴⁾Nygren M, Carstensen J, Koch F, et al. Experience of a serious life event increases the risk for childhood type 1 diabetes: the ABIS population-based prospective cohort study. Diabetologia 2015;58(6):1188-97. doi: 10.1007/s00125-015-3555-2 [published Online First: 2015/04/15] as well as for T1D ⁽⁵⁾Singh T, Weiss A, Vehik K, et al. Caesarean section and risk of type 1 diabetes. Diabetologia 2024;67(8):1582-87. doi: 10.1007/s00125-024-06176-7 [published Online First: 2024/05/31], ⁽⁶⁾Dahlquist G, Kallen B. Maternal-child blood group incompatibility and other perinatal events increase the risk for early-onset type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus. Diabetologia 1992;35(7):671-75. doi: 10.1007/BF00400261 [published Online First: 1992/07/01], ⁽⁷⁾Sepa A, Ludvigsson J. Psychological stress and the risk of diabetes-related autoimmunity: A review article. Neuroimmunomodulation 2006;13(5-6):301-8. doi: 10.1159/000104858 [published Online First: 2007/08/22]. These are not a mother’s, father’s, or baby’s fault and are events outside of a person’s control. We wonder if it may be possible to support mothers and their natural protective characteristics that may get affected by early events.

Why the Survey is for Mothers

I met Psychologist Dr. Tony Madrid in 2000. He had discovered a way to support mothers from effects of adverse events early in her child’s life that could reverse asthma in her child.

While it is possible that working with fathers in the same way may also be helpful, our initial study will focus on mothers since this approach has been effective with mothers and has 35 years of experience behind it.

Asthma is more common in type 1 diabetes ⁽⁸⁾Metsala J, Lundqvist A, Virta LJ, et al. The association between asthma and type 1 diabetes: a paediatric case-cohort study in Finland, years 1981-2009. Int J Epidemiol 2018;47(2):409-16. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyx245 [published Online First: 2017/12/07] ⁽⁹⁾Fazeli Farsani S, Souverein PC, van der Vorst MM, et al. Chronic comorbidities in children with type 1 diabetes: a population-based cohort study. Arch Dis Child 2015;100(8):763-8. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2014-307654 and has similar risk factors ⁽¹⁰⁾ Madrid A, Ames R, Horner D, et al. Improving asthma symptoms in children by repairing the maternal-infant bond. Journal of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health 2004;18(3):221-31, ⁽¹¹⁾Annesi-Maesano I, Moreau D, Strachan D. In utero and perinatal complications preceding asthma. Allergy 2001;56(6):491-7, ⁽¹²⁾Mead VP. Timing, bonding, and trauma: Applications from experience-dependent maturation and traumatic stress provide insights for understanding environmental origins of disease. In: Columbus AM, ed. Adv Psychol Res: Nova Science Publishers 2007:1-80, ⁽¹³⁾King S, Matvienko-Sikar K, Laplante DP. Chapter 18: Natural Disasters and Pregnancy: Population-Level Stressors and Interventions. In: Wazana A, Székely E, Oberlander TF, eds. Prenatal Stress and Child Development: Springer 2021, ⁽¹⁴⁾Xu B, Pekkanen J, Jarvelin MR. Obstetric complications and asthma in childhood. J Asthma 2000;37(7):589-94. This suggests there may be a common feature among risk factors for type 1 diabetes and asthma.

This type 1 diabetes perinatal survey takes the next step to learn whether the research about early risk factors for type 1 diabetes and Dr. Madrid’s approach for healing asthma might provide helpful insights or tools for type 1 diabetes.

Criteria for the type 1 diabetes perinatal survey

This survey is for

• mothers who are 18 years old or older
• mothers who have a child 18 years old or younger

• Children may have any state of health including:
  • type 1 diabetes or
  • two or more diabetes-related antibodies (stage 1 or stage 2 T1D) or
  • other chronic health conditions now or in the past or
  • no major health conditions with no ADHD, asthma, autism, celiac disease, diabetes or other chronic health challenges

You can take the type 1 diabetes perinatal survey by clicking the button below or scanning the QR code in the image at the top of this page. Or keep reading to learn more.

I’ve teamed up for this perinatal survey

I have teamed up with Psychologist Tony Madrid, PhD for this study. We are investigating this together as members of the Redwood Psychology Center, which is a nonprofit.

There are 3 stages of type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is now understood to develop in 3 stages ⁽¹⁵⁾Phillip, M., et al. (2024, Aug 1). Consensus Guidance for Monitoring Individuals With Islet Autoantibody-Positive Pre-Stage 3 Type 1 Diabetes. Diabetes Care, 47(8), 1276-1298. https://doi.org/10.2337/dci24-0042.

Type 1 diabetes, and the need for insulin, is now known as Stage 3 diabetes.

Stage 1 and Stage 2 diabetes are associated with the presence of two or more antibodies. In these early phases of this autoimmune disease a person has no symptoms and no need for insulin. Antibodies can resolve, however this less common if a person has 2 or more antibodies. Stage 1 and Stage 2 are referred to as early stage type 1 diabetes or Early T1D.

Survey Criteria

Age

This survey is for

• mothers who are 18 years or older
• with a child currently 18 years old or younger

Your child may have type 1 diabetes or any other state of health including other chronic conditions or no chronic conditions.

The survey is for mothers of children with any stage of type 1 diabetes

• Stage 1: presence of 2 or more antibodies for T1D and normal blood sugars.
• Stage 2: presence of 2 or more antibodies for T1D and blood sugars are a little higher than normal.
• Stage 3: high blood sugar levels that require insulin for management

What We’ve Learned So Far

We received an initial 30 responses for each group. Thank you!

After looking at the initial data from these responses it looks like there are some differences between the two groups. This is what we had hypothesized. Because the difference between the two groups is not as large as we suspected it might be, we need an additional 40 responses for each group to learn if this difference is real and statistically significant.

We are now hoping to get additional responses from:

• 40 more mothers of children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) or T1D antibodies
• 40 more mothers of children with any state of health, including chronic conditions or no major health challenges

Here’s more in our survey update blog post along with images, pdf and links to help share our survey with more mothers.

Take the survey for more than one child

If you have more than one child, and that child is 18 years old or younger, we especially invite you to take the survey again for more that child. This extra survey you take may help us better understand nuances about potential impacts of early life experiences.

You’ll have the option to stop after taking the survey once or to continue and take it again for another child.

Time

The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete.

After the survey you’ll receive an email

After completing the survey and clicking “submit” you will receive an email:

• confirming that your responses have been submitted
• with a link to a PDF for more information

Your responses are confidential.

You will be added to a mailing list for this particular survey so that we can let you know what we learn, whether we conduct a follow-up study, and to contact you on if we have any additional questions after reviewing your survey responses.

Take the Perinatal Survey for Mothers

Subscribe for Updates to the Diabetes Perinatal Survey

If you are a mother who has have taken the survey somewhere other than on the blog, or if you are someone else interested in receiving updates you can subscribe below to receive emails when we have analyzed the data, have information or make updates about the survey and study.