Bereavement and type 1 diabetes in childhood: a register‑based cohort study in Sweden – published online 19/12/2024

Mona‑Lisa Wernroth, Beatrice Kennedy, Katja Fall, Diem Nguyen, Awad I. Smew, Per‑Ola Carlsson, Bodil Svennblad, Catarina Almqvist, Tove Fall

Elucidating environmental factors that influence type 1 diabetes development in childhood helps to enhance our understanding of disease initiation and progression. In this issue, Wernroth et al (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-024-06340-z) present a register-based study encompassing over 3.5 million children in Sweden, and examine whether childhood bereavement, a severe psychological stressor, affected the incidence of type 1 diabetes. The authors found no overall association, nor any influence of factors such as familial relationship to the deceased, cause of death, or age at or time since loss. Their findings suggest that exposure to psychological stress, specifically in the form of bereavement, is unlikely to play a substantial role in the development of type 1 diabetes in childhood.