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Published on: July 5, 2022
Acidic drinking water and risk of childhood-onset type 1 diabetes
Lars C Stene1, Dag Hongve, Per Magnus
1Diabetes Research Center, Aker and Ullevål University Hospitals, Oslo, Norway. lars.christian.stene@fhi.no
Objective:
To estimate the associations of acidity and concentration of selected minerals in household tap water with the risk of type 1 diabetes.
Research Design And Methods:
We designed a population-based case-control study with 64 cases of type 1 diabetes and 250 randomly selected control subjects. Acidity, color, and mineral content were measured in tap water from each participant's household.
Results:
Tap water pH 6.2-6.9 was associated with a fourfold higher risk of type 1 diabetes compared with pH > or =7.7 (OR 3.73, 95% CI 1.52-9.15). This result was similar after exclusion of individuals with the highly protective HLA-DQB1*0602 allele, but adjustment for maternal education, urban/rural residence, sex, and age tended to strengthen the estimated association. Higher tap water concentration of zinc was associated with lower risk of type 1 diabetes after adjustment for pH and other possible confounders, but the overall association was strictly not significant.
Conclusions:
These results suggest the possibility that quality of drinking water influences the risk of type 1 diabetes. The possible mechanisms by which water acidity or mineral content may be involved in the etiology of type 1 diabetes remain unknown, but the mechanisms are most likely indirect and may involve an influence on survival of microorganisms in the water.
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