Time to reframe the disease staging system for type 1 diabetes
In 2015, introduction of a disease staging system offered a framework for benchmarking progression to clinical type 1 diabetes. This model, based on islet autoantibodies (stage 1) and dysglycaemia (stage 2) before type 1 diabetes diagnosis (stage 3), has facilitated screening and identification of people at risk. Yet, there are many limitations to this model as the stages combine a very heterogeneous group of individuals; do not have high specificity for type 1 diabetes; can occur without persistence (ie, reversion to an earlier risk stage); and exclude age and other influential risk factors.
