OBJECTIVE To determine the incidence of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) in children aged 0–14 years in Kuwait, as part of the World Health Organization Multinational Collaborative Study (DIAMOND), and to determine if the incidence rates have increased.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS All cases of IDDM diagnosed before the child's 15th birthday between 1 January 1992 and 31 December 1993 were recorded. Prospective notification of all children with newly diagnosed diabetes who were admitted to hospitals and periodic review of hospital medical records provided the primary source; notification by physicians working in diabetic clinics, in which registry of all new cases is mandatory, provided the secondary source of ascertainment.

RESULTS The degree of ascertainment was 92.2%. The annual incidence of IDDM for children aged 0–14 years over the 2-year period was 15.4/100,000 (95% confidence interval, 12.4–19), with a male:female ratio of 1.2:1. The age-specific annual incidence rates for the age-groups 0–4, 5–9, and 10–14 years were 12.8, 15.1, and 18.3/100,000, respectively, with a male:female ratio of 1.45:1 in the 0- to 4-year-old age-group and an equal sex ratio in the 5- to 9- and 10- to 14-year-old age-groups. No significant difference was detected between incidence rates of IDDM in boys and girls in the three age-groups. There was no significant linear trend toward an increase in IDDM incidence rates as age advanced. Compared with a previous study by Taha et al. (Taha T, Moussa M, Rashed A, Fenech F: Diabetes mellitus in Kuwait: incidence in the first 29 years of life. Diabetologia 25:306–308, 1983), there was a nearly fourfold increase of IDDM in the age-group 0–14 years, mainly in those children < 5 years old, suggesting a rapid increase in a short period of time.

CONCLUSIONS Kuwait has the highest incidence of IDDM in children in the region, and an apparently increasing incidence has been demonstrated over the last decade.