The association between dairy products consumption with risk of type 1 diabetes mellitus in children: a meta-analysis of observational studies

The cornerstone of diabetes management is the diagnosis of its risk factors and then applying appropriate therapy. The aim of the study was to find if dairy consumption increases the risk of T1DM in children. A systematic search of PubMed and Scopus was done up to 22 February 2020. The overall estimates and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated using a random effects model. Our meta-analysis was performed on 7 studies. We extracted 14 effect sizes for T1DM risk. The analysis indicated that dairy consumption increased the risk of T1DM (RR: 1.04, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.08), with high heterogeneity (I2 = 76.6%, P heterogeneity < 0.001). This meta-analysis showed a significant association between the consumption of dairy products and increased risk of T1DM with considerable heterogeneity. Further, longitudinal studies are needed to determine the causal relationship between dairy products and T1DM occurrence.