Diabetes mellitus in Prince Edward island.

Registers of diabetic persons can provide good epidemiologic data and few countries have them1-6). In Prince Edward Island (PEI), all diabetics who register annually with the Provincial Department of Health can obtain prescribed hypoglycemic medications and urine testing materials free of charge. This drug programme has served as an informal register since 1964. We present here the data on (i) the prevalence and incidence of diabetes mellitus, (ii) the pattern of drug therapy for the diabetics, and (iii) the cost of providing such a programme to a diabetic population. METHODS The details of the programme have been reported previously7). Briefly, each diabetic registrant is assigned a Diabetes Control Programme number after a prescription form signed by the registrant's physician is received. The information contained in the form include sex, date of birth, year of onset of diabetes, type of therapy (diet, oral hypoglycemic agents, insulin or insulin plus oral agents), and the kind of hypoglycemic medications. All these data are stored in computer tapes. For this study, it is assumed that every diabetic person applied for these benefits and that the physician's diagnosis is correct7). The incidence cases are the newly diagnosed cases registered for that year (residents for three or more months before diagnosis that year). Prevalence cases are the registrants for that particular year. Four census years (1966, 1971, 1976 and 1981) provied population figures. The population figures for the intercensal years are interpolated. Itemized costs on the different components (oral hypoglycemic agents, insulin, and urine testing materials) of the programme are available only from 1978 on. RESULTS Prevalence The prevalence rates of diabetes in PEI from 1966 to 1980 are shown in Table 1. There was a steady increase in the prevalence rate, from 0.