OBJECTIVE — Assessing updated incidence of type 1 diabetes in 0- to 14-year-old children in Liguria, a Northwest region of Italy.

the direct method. The independent effect of sex, age, residence, and calendar year was estimated with Poisson regression model. The degree of ascertainment was calculated in accordance to capture/recapture method. RESULTS — During 10 full calendar years, 219 new cases of type 1 diabetes in children were diagnosed in Liguria. The standardized IR over the 10-year period was 12.56 cases per 100,000 per year (95 % CI 11.0–14.3). The sex-specific IR among men and women was 14.15 and 10.88, respectively. The age-specific IR was higher in the 10- to 14-year-old age-group (15.01/100,000) than in 0- to 4-year-old age-group (9.01/100,000) and in the 5- to 9-year-old age-group (13.03/ 100,000). CONCLUSIONS — The IR of type 1 diabetes in Liguria is among the highest in Southern Europe and approaches IRs of Northern European countries. In particular it is much higher than those reported in the surrounding Italian regions except for Sardinia. Therefore, the geographical distribution of type 1 diabetes does not seem to reflect the simple North-South gradient reported in several previous works. Diabetes Care 26:1786–1789, 2003 T ype 1 diabetes is one of the mostfrequent chronic disease in childrenand is a major public health prob-lem because of the long-term complica-tions of type 1 diabetes. Monitoring the incidence of type 1 diabetes may provide important information about the etiology of the disease. In a 5-year study, we previously dem-onstrated that the Liguria region had the highest incidence (11.72/100,000 per year) in Italy (1) after Sardinia (30.7/ 100,000 per year) (2). However, we real-ized that data from a longer period would be needed before these results could be fully confirmed. This study aimed to update the 10-year incidence of type 1 diabetes in 0- to 14-year-old children in Liguria