Screening for prediabetes in the general child population: maternal attitude to participation

Abstract: Screening to predict serious diseases in the general population has been regarded as unethical as it is supposed to make people anxious. Therefore we have evaluated whether mothers become anxious when their babies participate in a project to predict diabetes in the general child population. Out of 21 700 newborn children, 16 300 (75%) entered the ABIS project (All Babies in South‐east Sweden). The parents (usually the mothers) answered a questionnaire at the child's birth and then again after 1 yr. A total of 10 868 representative birth questionnaires had been analyzed. To the question, ‘How do you feel when you know that your child is participating in this study?’, only 2.5% of mothers of children with type 1 diabetes in the family answered ‘more anxious/much more anxious’, and even fewer (1.5%) of the mothers in the general population (p < 0.01). A total of 52.5% of the general population answered ‘calmer/more reassured’ (29.3% ‘calmer’ and 23.2% ‘much calmer’), while 43.3% felt unaffected. Those 1.5% of mothers who reported becoming more anxious were more likely to be in an unstable social situation (unemployed, p < 0.001; born abroad, p < 0.001; low education, p < 0.001).