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New research reveals that the increasing rate of type 1 diabetes among Finnish children may have leveled off.

A new study looked at the incidence rates of type 1 diabetes between 2006 and 2011 in Finnish children younger than 15 years old. Researchers also examined the 32-year trend of increasing rates of type 1 diabetes between 1980 and 2011 in Finland.

Researchers said that all children with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes were determined using several nationwide registers. Age-standardized and age-specific annual incidence rates for age groups 0-4, 5-9, and 10-14 years were calculated.

Study results revealed that a total of 14,069 children (7,695 boys and 6,374 girls) were diagnosed with T1D between 1980 and 2011.  Researchers note that 3,332 of the new cases were diagnosed between 2006 and 2011m with peak incidence observed in 2006.

The study found two significant changes in the longer-term trend.  Researchers found that after a modest increase until 1988, the incidence increased annually by 3.6 percent until 2005, followed up a plateau until the end of 2011.

"The encouraging observation in this study is that the incidence of T1D in Finnish children younger than 15 years has ceased to increase after a period of accelerated increase," researchers wrote in the study.

Researchers said that this could be because of changes in the environment, such as vitamin D intake.  Researchers explained that the amount of vitamin D recommended for infants had been reduced to one-tenth since the 1950s, during which time the incidence of type 1 diabetes increased 5-fold.

"The fortification of dairy products with vitamin D after 2003 may have contributed to the leveling off of T1D incidence," researchers concluded.

The findings are published in the July 24/31 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.