Young people diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes are at risk of complications from their diabetes including kidney, heart, eye and vascular disease. Almost ten years ago, in 2006, we started asking adolescents to provide urine samples as part of an international study, to examine the risk of these complications by testing for protein in the urine. Higher traces of protein in the urine are a sign of increased risk of kidney damage, so this enabled us to determine adolescents at risk of developing complications.
When the samples were tested, the results showed three categories, lower, middle and upper. Adolescents who were allocated to the upper category were invited to participate in another study called the Adolescent type 1 Diabetes cardio-renal Intervention Trial or AdDIT for short. This is an international study with sites in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, and is coordinated by the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
The risk of kidney disease can be reduced by improving glycaemic control (HbA1c), but this can be difficult to achieve- particularly during adolescence. Adults who have signs of developing kidney and heart problems have been treated successfully with two different medicines. However, these medicines have not been used by adolescents with diabetes. The aim of AdDIT was to find out whether these medications work for adolescents with type 1 diabetes.
We started recruiting for AdDIT in 2008. Over the next five years until August 2013, a total of 457 young people all around the world joined AdDIT: 209 are at eight sites within Australia, 125 from Canada, and 123 from the United Kingdom.
Participants in the study took two tablets every day for two to four years, and attended up to 21 visits. Each participant provided up to 134ml of blood and 81ml of urine over the course of the study. This is a huge commitment and we would like to thank all of the participants and their families for their commitment to the study.
The last participants finished taking the study medication in August this year. In February 2016, the final study visits will occur. It is important that we continue to collect as much data as possible at the final visits. Please call or email Alison Roberts 08 9340 8486 Alison.roberts@health.wa.gov.au if you have any queries about your final visit.
Over the next year we will be compiling all the data and testing all of the samples we have collected to find out how well the medications worked.
We would really like to keep in touch with all of our study recruits so we can send out regular updates on our findings and let you know about all of the projects arising from AdDIT. We will be writing to everyone as they finish the study asking to update contact details and to check that you are happy for us to continue writing to you. Follow up of AdDIT may be as important to type 1 diabetes as the study itself. In the meantime, we want to say a big thank you to everyone. We really appreciate all your efforts and support in making AdDIT the most important study for young people with type 1 diabetes.