Childhood Insulin-Dependent Diabetes

Abstract

Before 1960, childhood diabetes was very rare. In 1961 we sent questionnaires to all the departments of medicine and pediatrics of the medical schools. This survey detected only 39 cases of childhood diabetes at the 46 university hospitals during the years 1956–1960. This figure is an unbelievable one if compared with those in European countries and even with those at the present time in Japan. Annual urine examinations of elementary and junior high school children has been legally obligatory for the early detection of renal disease since 1973 and urine glucose has been screened in addition to urine albumin. This nationwide detection survey has provided information not only on the incidence or prevalence but also about the natural history and clinical features of diabetes among children. Mimura (1) reviewed the reports on glucose tolerance tests during 1973 to 1978, and collected 47 cases of IDDM and 37 cases of NIDDM among 967,919 examinees (age 6–15 years old). The prevalence was 4.9 per 100,000 for IDDM and 3.8 per 100,000 for NIDDM. Kitagawa et al. (2) have been continuing the review for the diabetes detection in Tokyo and estimated the incidence of asymptomatic IDDM as 0–0.9 (average 0.4) per 100,000 population and that of asymptomatic plus symptomatic IDDM as 1.2–1.6 per 100,000 children per year.