Development of a registry for diabetes in persons 0-19 years of age in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

A juvenile-onset diabetes registry was recently established in the United States Virgin Islands. Hospital and clinic records were used as the primary sources of case data, while data procured through a physician survey and mass media campaign were used to assess the completeness and validity of the registry listings. The data indicated that 39 people 0-19 years old developed diabetes during the study period (1 January 1979-31 December 1988), of whom 36 probably had Type 1 diabetes. Completeness of the primary source data was estimated at 92.3% and validity seemed very good (around 100%). Evaluation of these registry data has provided new insights into the epidemiology of Type 1 diabetes in the U.S. Virgin Islands.