Temporal trend of newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes children and adolescents identified over a 35-year period in a Brazilian institution.

Aims: To evaluate the temporal trend of newly diagnosed Type 1 Diabetes cases over a 35-year period in a reference Pediatric Endocrinology service in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Methods: Subjects were all children and adolescents diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in the Federal University of Minas Gerais Hospital. Information collected included: gender, age and date of Type 1 diabetes diagnosis. Temporal trends were analyzed between 1980 and 2014 and divided in 5-year intervals.

Results: During this period 642 children and adolescents were diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. From 1980 to 1994 there was an increase in the proportion of children diagnosed between 0 and 4 years old, followed by progressive decrease in the subsequent decades (47% in 1990-1994 to 20% in 2010-2014; p = 0.01). There was an increase in the proportion of children diagnosed between 10 and 18 years old (13% in 1990-1994 to 54% in 2010-2014; p = 0.01). There was no statistical difference in the proportion of children diagnosed between 5 and 9 years old through the studied time.

Conclusions: In the studied population Type 1 Diabetes in infants and toddlers seems to be decreasing throughout the years while in the age group older than 10 years, it seems to be increasing.