ESPE Abstracts

Aim: The Irish Childhood Diabetes National Register (ICDNR), established in 2008, prospectively collects robust data to monitor the epidemiology of Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) in children up to the age of 15 years. It is well recognised that the incidence of T1DM in children differs over time and between populations. The recent IDF atlas noted Ireland to have the 10^th highest reported T1DM incidence globally. In the Irish population, similar to other high incidence countries a period of stabilisation in T1DM incidence was reported, followed by a slight reduction during 2014-2018 before rising again from 2019-2021. The aimof this study is to define the Incidence rate of T1DM in the Irish population in 2022, following the global Covid-19 pandemic, to ascertain if the incidence rate (IR) has continued to increase and if the shift to an earlier age category at diagnosis, noted in 2021, has been maintained.

Methods: All centres caring for children under 15 years of age prospectively reported incident cases of those with T1DM to the ICDNR from January 1^st to December 31^st 2022. Following case verification incidence rates were calculated using national population census data provided by the Central statistics office. The direct method of standardisation was used. Capture-recapture methodology was employed to measure ascertainment and rates compared with previous ICDNR data.

Results: A total of 359 incident cases were reported in the period, (aged 0.57 – 14.95 years). There were surprisingly more females (189 (53%)) and male to female ratio of 0.9. Standardised IRs for T1DM in the period remained high, although were 8.5% lower than 2021, and were: 34.6 (31.0, 38.3); 32.1 (27.4, 37.3); and 37.1 (31.9, 42.8) per 100,000 per year, overall and for males and females respectively. The incidence rate in males fell by17.3% and rose 0.9% in females. Category-specific incidence rates showed a reduced numbers of males in the 5-9 and 10-14 year age groups and an increase in females aged 10-14 years. As in earlier years, the highest IR was in the 10-14-year-old age category (44.3% of total cases) in 2022.

Conclusion: This study shows that in 2022 the incidence of T1DM in Ireland, remains high albeit lower than in 2021. Ongoing monitoring is required through the ICDNR to define if this fall in IR will persist or is merely a fluctuation. Robust epidemiological monitoring of T1DM is important to inform resource allocation and service delivery.