A longitudinal assessment of diabetes autoantibodies in the SEARCH for diabetes in youth study

To assess changes in diabetes autoantibodies (DAs) over time in children and young adults with diabetes and determine whether observed changes were associated with demographic characteristics, clinical parameters and diabetes complications. Participants had DAs measured at baseline (10.3 ± 7.1 months after diabetes diagnosis) and at 12, 24 months and ≥5 years after the baseline measurement. At the ≥5‐year follow‐up, the presence of diabetes complications was assessed. We examined the associations between change in number of positive DAs and changes in individual DA status with the participants' characteristics and clinical parameters over time. Out of 4179 participants, 62% had longitudinal DA data and 51% had complications and longitudinal DA data. In participants with ≥1 baseline positive DA (n = 1699), 83.4% remained positive after 7.3 ± 2.3 years duration of diabetes. Decrease in number of positive DAs was associated with longer diabetes duration (p = 0.003 for 1 baseline positive DA; p