Abstract
Type 1 diabetes mellitus is a chronic multifactorial disease, it is an increasing public health problem in developed and developing countries. The etiology of this disease is uncertain , several maternal, neonatal and environmental risk factors might play an important role in its development, the goal of disease prediction is prevention.
Objective
The objective of this study was to identify the associations of type 1 diabetes mellitus with some potential risk factors
Methodology
This is a hospital based case control study conducted on 150 children who were diagnosed as type1 diabetic patients(cases), their age range was 1-15 years all of them were attended or admitted to diabetic center in Marjan teaching hospital and Babylon children and maternity hospital. Age matched 300 children as control group were selected randomly from children who attended or admitted these hospitals due to other diseases from and proved by blood test to be diabetes free. Data were collected by interviewing the child s parents using a structured questionnaire.
This study was conducted over the period from the beginning of February 2015 to the end of June ,2015
Results
The study showed that there was a statistically significant associations (p<0.05) between type1 diabetes mellitus and the following independent variables ; positive family history of diabetes, immune diseases (thyroid and Celiac diseases),early neonatal disease(jaundice),breast feeding less than 6 months ,delivery by cesarean section, blood group O and later birth order .
Among maternal diseases ,the study show that there was a significant associations between type1 diabetes mellitus and increase maternal age at delivery ,parity , maternal drugs , maternal smoking ,pre-eclampsia , gestational diabetes and poor folic acid intake during pregnancy.
This study revealed that no significant association of this disease with gestational age at delivery of child and antenatal care of mother(p>0.05).

Conclusion:-
Exposure to environmental risk factors during pregnancy, neonatal period and early childhood play an important role in the development of type 1 diabetes mellitus.


Keywords
Type1 Diabetes Mellitus, Risk Factors, Children , Iraq, Babylon