Authors: P L CampbellStokes B J Taylor on behalf of the New Zealand Children’s Diabetes Working Group
Publish Date: 2005/03/10
Volume: 48, Issue: 4, Pages: 643-648
Abstract
The New Zealand Paediatric Surveillance Unit sought monthly reporting of diabetes mellitus cases from paediatricians All resident children aged below 15 years 1996 census risk population 832000 who met the criteria for diagnosis of diabetes mellitus from 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2000 were included The average annual incidence of type 1 and type 2 diabetes was calculated as were incidence rates according to age sex region ethnicity and season Case ascertainment was estimated using hospital admission dataThere were 315 valid reports of new cases of diabetes Of these 298 946 had type 1 diabetes 12 38 had type 2 diabetes and five had other specified types of diabetes The average annual incidence of type 1 diabetes was 179/100000 95 CI 159–20/100000 Children in the South Island had a 15fold higher incidence than children in the North Island which was largely accounted for by the variation in incidence with ethnicity in that the European rate was 45 times higher than the Maori rate The average annual incidence of type 2 diabetes was 084/100000 95 CI 037–126/100000 Estimated case ascertainment rate was 952Type 1 diabetes incidence has doubled over the past three decades The geographical differences previously described have persisted and are largely explained by the ethnic variation in incidence This population includes young adolescents with type 2 diabetes These findings are in keeping with international trendsReports from many populations indicate that the incidence of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes is increasing in the under15 age group 1 2 While increasing rates of obesity and sedentary lifestyles appear to account for the increase in type 2 diabetes relatively little is known about why type 1 diabetes is increasing Since the earliest registers of type 1 diabetes it has been evident that a large at least 35fold geographical difference in incidence exists which has persisted until today 3 Although these differences are considered to result from varying distributions of genetic and environmental risk factors the exact variations and contributions of these risk factors remain unknown
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