The incidence of type 1 diabetes has been rising for decades, particularly among young children. Between 2006 and 2011, the incidence rate (IR) reached a plateau in Finland. In this observational, register-based cohort study, we assess recent trends in the disease rate in Finnish children. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODSBased on data from the Finnish Pediatric Diabetes Register, we studied the incidence of type 1 diabetes among children younger than 15 years of age between 2003 and 2018. We assessed sex-specific IRs per 100,000 person-years (PY) by 4-year time periods in three age-groups (0.50-4.99, 5.00-9.99, and 10.00-14.99 years). RESULTSAmong the 7,871 children with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes, the median age at diagnosis increased from 7.88 to 8.33 years (P 5 0.001), while the overall IR decreased from 57.9/100,000 PY in 2003-2006 to 52.2/100,000 PY in 2015-2018, yielding an IR ratio (IRR) of 0.90 (95% CI 0.85-0.96, P 5 0.001). This decline was mainly due to the decrease in the youngest age-group (IRR 0.77 [95% CI 0.68-0.87]; P < 0.001), being significant both among boys and girls. In the middle age-group, a significant decrease was observed only among girls. No changes were observed in the oldest children. CONCLUSIONSThe incidence of type 1 diabetes decreased among young Finnish children between 2003 and 2018. Current findings imply that environmental factors driving the immune system toward islet autoimmunity are changing in young children.
OBJECTIVE Previous findings suggest that there are age-related endotypes of type 1 diabetes with different underlying etiopathological mechanisms in those diagnosed at age <7 years compared with those diagnosed at age ≥13 years. We set out to explore whether variation in demographic, clinical, autoimmune, and genetic characteristics of children and adolescents with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes support the existence of these proposed endotypes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We used data from the Finnish Pediatric Diabetes Register to analyze characteristics of 6,015 children and adolescents diagnosed with type 1 diabetes between 2003 and 2019. We described and compared demographic data, clinical characteristics at diagnosis, autoantibody profiles, and HLA class II–associated disease risk between three groups formed based on age at diagnosis: <7, 7–12, and ≥13 years. RESULTS We found significant age-related differences in most of the characteristics analyzed. Children diagnosed at age <7 years were characterized by a higher prevalence of affected first-degree relatives, stronger HLA-conferred disease susceptibility, and higher number of autoantibodies at diagnosis, in particular a higher frequency of insulin autoantibodies, when compared with older children. Those diagnosed at age ≥13 years had a considerably higher male preponderance, higher frequency of glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibodies, longer duration of symptoms before diagnosis, and more severe metabolic decompensation, reflected, for example, by a higher frequency of diabetic ketoacidosis. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that the heterogeneity of type 1 diabetes is associated with the underlying disease process and support the existence of distinct endotypes of type 1 diabetes related to age at diagnosis.
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