Epidemiology of Type 1 diabetes mellitus in Cyprus: rising incidence at the dawn of the 21st century

OBJECTIVE: The incidence of Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) in Greek-Cypriot children aged less than 15 years between 1990 and 2009 was examined along with gender differences concerning the age of onset and the seasonal variation at manifestation of the disease. DESIGN: All newly diagnosed cases of T1DM in children less than 15 years old were registered with the capture-recapture method from 1990 until 2009. RESULTS: The overall mean annual incidence during these 20 years is 12.46 per 100,000. A comparison of the incidence between the two decades (1990-1999 vs 2000-2009) indicated a rising trend, from 10.80 per 100,000 person-years during the first decade to 14.44 per 100,000 person-years during the second decade. There was an overall male predominance (M/F: 1.05), which is in agreement with the male predominance in the population less than 15 years of age, except for the group who manifested T1DM at ages 10-15 years where females prevail. The percentage of children who developed T1DM at ages 0-5 years in the total T1DM population increased in the second decade (26.4% vs 19.0%), and significantly more children were diagnosed during the cold months as opposed to the warm months (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The incidence of T1DM in Cyprus is rising. The identification of causative environmental factors will theoretically explain this phenomenon and new preventive strategies can therefore potentially be developed.