Incidence trend of type 1 diabetes mellitus in Serbia

BACKGROUND: The incidence of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) increased worldwide. The objective of the paper was to compare the incidence trend of T1DM in children and adolescents aged 0–19 and in adults under 30 years of age in Serbia from 2006 to 2017. Additional aim was to compare incidence rates of T1DM and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among adults aged 20–24 and 25–29 years of age. METHODS: Trends and annual percentage change (APC) of the incidence rate with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated by Joinpoint Regression Analyses. RESULTS: We found a significant increase of incidence in children aged 5–9 with the APC of 5.7% (95%CI: 2.3–9.1), and in children aged 10–14 with the APC of 2.1% (95%CI: 0.6–3.6). A significant decrease of incidence was determined in adolescents aged 15–19 with the APC -4.9% (95%CI: − 8.9 to – 0.7) and in adults aged 25–29 with the APC -7.3% (95%CI: − 12.5 to − 1.8). CONCLUSION: The increase of incidence in children aged 0–14 and its decrease after 15 years of age showed that T1DM is predominantly a metabolic disease of children in Serbia. A significant increase in incidence was recorded in two age groups, namely 5–9 and 10–14 years of age. The highest increase was in children aged 5–9 and the highest incidence rate was in children aged 10–14. An insignificant increasing of T2DM incidence was observed in young adults aged 25–29. The increase in incidence rates in children, but not in young adults, suggests that the precipitating factors of children-onset disease may differ from those of adult-onset T1DM.