Zinc And Nitrate In The Ground Water And The Incidence Of Type 1 Diabetes In Finland

Aims In Finland, the risk of childhood Type 1 diabetes varies geographically. Therefore we investigated the association between spatial variation of Type 1 diabetes and its putative environmental risk factors, zinc and nitrates.Methods The association was evaluated using Bayesian modelling and the geo-referenced data on diabetes cases and population.Results Neither zinc nor nitrate nor the urban/rural status of the area had a significant effect on the variation in incidence of childhood Type 1 diabetes.Conclusions The results showed that although there was no significant difference in incidence between rural and urban areas, there was a tendency to increasing risk of Type 1 diabetes with the increasing concentration of NO3 in drinking water. The fact that no significant effect was found may stem from the aggregated data being too crude to detect it.