Summary
This report provides the latest information from Australia's National Diabetes Register. The register applies to Australians who began using insulin for diabetes since 1999.
The report focuses on children with Type 1 diabetes who were aged 0-14 years when they began using insulin. It includes information on the incidence of the disease by various demographic factors, as well as trends over the 9-year period from 2000 to 2008.
The picture
- The incidence of Type 1 diabetes in Australian children increased significantly over the first part of the decade (2000-2004), but since 2005 there has been little change in the rate of new cases.
- On average, every day there are two new cases of Type 1 diabetes in Australian children.
Some numbers behind the picture
- Australia remains in the top 10 countries with the highest rates of Type 1 diabetes in children.
- There were over 8,000 new cases of Type 1 diabetes in Australian children during the period 2000-2008.
- The incidence of Type 1 diabetes in children increased from 19 to 24 new cases per 100,000 population between 2000 and 2004, at an average rate of 6.2% a year, but did not change significantly between 2005 and 2008.
- The incidence rate was higher among boys aged 0-4 years than among girls of the same age. However, there were no differences between boys and girls in the older age groups.
- Incidence rates were twice as high among 10-14 year olds as for 0-4 year olds (29.3 per 100,000 compared with 14.3 over the 9-year period), with the rate for 5-9 year olds sitting in between (24.1).