Frequency of childhood diabetes mellitus in Germany - an epidemiological overview

A global increase in the occurrence of Type 1 diabetes mellitus during chil dhood has been observed. In Germany, data on the frequency of diabetes beca me available only a few years ago. The Baden-Wurttemberg Incidence Registry is currently the most comprehensive data collection system pertaining to c hildhood-onset diabetes in Germany; and is affiliated to the EURODIAB data bank, a collaborative European network. The mean standardized sex- and age- specific incidence rate for diabetes mellitus among children aged 0-14 year s is 12.9/100,000 per year (95% Cl 12.4-13.4), calculated on the basis of t he data pool for the period from 1987 to 1998. During this time, it was obs erved that the incidence rate increased by 47%. This is equivalent to a yea rly increase of 3.6%. The prevalence for the age group 0 - 14 years is betw een 0.08 and 0.09%, whereas it is between 0.13 and 0.15% for the total grou p under 20 years of age [18]. Our calculations predict a doubling of the in cidence rate within 20 years, reaching 24.7/100,000 children a year in the year 2020.