JDRF - Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

Research released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare indicate that an average of 2100 Australians are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes each year, a large proportion of which are children aged between 0-14 years.

Australia has one of the highest incidences of type 1 diabetes in the world for reasons that are currently unknown – but with 9 in 10 people with type 1 having no apparent family connection to the disease, scientists strongly believe in the involvement of an unidentified environmental trigger.

According to JDRF Head of Research Development, Dr Dorota Pawlak, a number of suspects have been scrutinised including early exposure to cows milk, gut bacteria, viral infection and vitamin D levels.

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Researchers warn that environmental factors must be behind rising rates of type 1 diabetes amongst children in Europe.

Type 1 diabetes is the leading form of diabetes amongst young people of European origin and results from the multi-centre EURODIAB study have shown that incidence is set to increase dramatically over the next ten years.

By analyzing past European data from 1989 – 2003, study researchers found that the overall increase of type 1 diabetes incidence was 3.9% each year. When the data was broken down into age groups, the largest increase could be seen in the 0-5yr age group, with an annual increase of 5.4%.

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