• Peter R Thingholm, Amanda Gaulke, Tine M Eriksen, Jannet Svensson, and Niels Skipper.
• Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
• Diabetes Care. 2020 Nov 1; 43 (11): 2886-2888.

ObjectiveTo investigate school absenteeism before the clinical diagnosis of type 1 diabetes in children who develop the disease.Research Design And MethodsThis population-based, retrospective case-control study involved all Danish children who developed type 1 diabetes and attended public schools (n = 1,338) from 2010 to 2017. Those children were matched at a 1-to-5 ratio, on the basis of sex and date of birth, to children without diabetes (n = 6,690). Case and control absenteeism were compared monthly, starting with 12 months prior to the type 1 diabetes diagnosis through 12 months after diagnosis.ResultsBefore the diabetes diagnosis (7-12 months), the mean number of days absent from school per month was 0.93 (SD 1.78) among children with diabetes and 0.93 (1.82) among control children (difference -0.004 days, P = 0.94). From 4 months before the diagnosis, children who developed diabetes had a statistically significant increase in absenteeism compared with control children (difference 0.24 days, P < 0.05).ConclusionsChildren who were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes had increased school absenteeism 4 months before diagnosis.© 2020 by the American Diabetes Association.

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