NEW cases of type 1 diabetes are increasing at the rate of 3 per cent a year - equivalent to an extra 6000 people affected between 2000 and 2006.

A report on the incidence of the disease - also known as juvenile-onset or insulin-dependent diabetes - finds an average of two extra people a day are developing the condition.

However, the reason for the increase remains a mystery.

Type 1 diabetes is a different condition to type 2 diabetes, which is spreading rapidly in most developed countries and is strongly linked to poor lifestyle habits and being overweight.

Type 1 diabetes is usually caused when the immune system turns on the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, destroying them. Affected people rely on daily insulin injections to survive.
 

The new report, published today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, finds that although type 1 diabetes can occur at any age, the rates are rising only among children aged up to 14. Rates among people aged 15-24 remained stable between 2000 and 2006. Rates in older age groups fell.

Among children aged 0-14, the rate of new cases increased from 19 children per 100,000 population in 2000 to 23 per 100,000 in 2006.

Report co-author Katherine Faulks, researcher in the AIHW's cardiovascular, diabetes and kidney unit, said Australia had the sixth-highest rate of type 1 diabetes in the world.

Type 1 diabetes is also more common among men than women.

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation chief executive Mike Wilson said the findings "increase the urgency to invest in research into type 1 diabetes, to prevent new cases and ultimately deliver a cure for the 140,000 Australians affected".