The rising incidence of childhood type 1 diabetes and reduced contribution of high-risk HLA haplotypes

The incidence of childhood type 1 diabetes has risen over the past 50 years. We compared the frequency of HLA class II haplotypes in 194 patients diagnosed more than 50 years ago and 582 age-matched and sex-matched individuals diagnosed between 1985 and 2002. The proportion of high-risk susceptibility genotypes was increased in the earlier cohort (p=0.003), especially in those diagnosed at age 5 years or younger, which is consistent with the hypothesis that the rise of type 1 diabetes is due to a major environmental effect.