Background: The aim of the study was to assess the incidence and prevalence of type 1 diabetes in Czech children aged 0-15 years over the period 1989-2003.
Methods and results: The cases were ascertained using two independent sources, the population-wide Czech Childhood Diabetes Register and the Association of Parents and Friends of Diabetic Children, and the completeness was calculated using the capture-recapture method. The background population size was obtained from annual reports of the Czech Statistic Bureau. Trends in incidence were estimated using Poisson regression. A total of 3 454 cases was ascertained, with an estimated deficit of 28 (95% CI 16-41) individuals. The average age-standardized incidence was 12.0 (95% CI 11.6-12.4) / 100,000/year, and its average relative increase was 6.8% / year. The incidence has risen from 6.8 (95% CI 5.7-7.9) in 1989 to 18.3 (95% CI 16.2-20.4) in 2003. The prevalence in 2003 was 1.01 (95% CI 0.96-0.06) cases per 1000, and its projection into the coming decade expects a rise to approximately 1.7/1000 in 2013.
Conclusions: The present work shows that the Czech population has an intermediate childhood type 1 diabetes incidence compared to other European countries, and although its continuous rise may be expected, the prevalence is very unlikely to reach dramatically high figures.