Australia is in the top 10 OECD countries with the highest rate of type 1 diabetes among children, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). The OECD or Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development consists of 32 countries.

A new study by the AIHW revealed on Thursday that two Australian children up to 14 years old are diagnosed with the disease each day.

That summed up to more than 8,000 new cases of Type 1 diabetes among Australian children between 2000 and 2008.

The study noted that the incidence of Type 1 diabetes in children increased from 19 to 24 new cases per 100,000 population between 2000 and 2004, an average rate of 6.2 percent a year. The incidence rate, however, did not change significantly between 2005 and 2008.

More boys aged 0-4 years than girls of the same age had Type 1 diabetes. There were no differences between boys and girls in the older age groups.

Australia's National Diabetes Register counts 21,300 people with Type 1 diabetes diagnosed from 1999 to 2008. Almost 9,000 children aged 0-14 years on the NDR have Type 1 diabetes.

It definitely creates a burden on the healthcare system, it also creates a burden for the children and their families because of the treatment they need to have, it's a life-long condition so they need to have it for the rest of their lives, said Anne-Marie Waters of the AIHW's National Centre for Monitoring Diabetes.

Australia Medicine