Physical Activity and the Development of Islet Autoimmunity and Type 1 Diabetes in 5-15 Year Old Children Followed in the TEDDY Study

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posted on 2023-05-04, 16:33 authored by Xiang Liu, Suzanne Bennett Johnson, Kristian F. Lynch, Kerry Cordan, Russell Pate, Martha D. Butterworth, Åke Lernmark, William A. Hagopian, Marian J. Rewers, Richard A. McIndoe, Jorma Toppari, Anette-G. Ziegler, Beena Akolkar, Jeffrey P. Krischer, Jimin Yang, the TEDDY Study Group

Objective: This study investigated physical activity and its association with the development of islet autoimmunity (IA) and type 1 diabetes in genetically at-risk 5-15 year old children.

Research Design and Methods: As part of the longitudinal Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) study, annual assessment of activity using accelerometry was conducted from age 5. Time-to-event analyses using Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the association between time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day and the appearance of one or several autoantibodies and progression to type 1 diabetes in three risk groups: 1) 3869 IA negative children of whom 157 became single IA positive; 2) 302 single IA positive children of whom 73 became multiple IA positive; 3) 294 multiple IA positive children of whom 148 developed type 1 diabetes.

Results: No significant association was found in risk group 1 or risk group 2. A significant association was seen in risk group 3 (HR = 0.920, 95% CI 0.856, 0.988 per 10 minutes, p = 0.021), particularly when GADA was the first autoantibody (HR = 0.883, 95% CI 0.783, 0.996 per 10 minutes, p=0.043).

Conclusions: More daily minutes spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was associated with a reduced risk of progression to type 1 diabetes in 5-15 year old children who had developed multiple islet autoantibodies.