[Prevention of diabetes mellitus: past, present, and future]

The incidence of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is increasing in many countries of the world, the average annual increase in the frequency of the disease in European children is 3.4% at the age of 0-14 and 6.3% at the age of 0-5. The increase in the incidence of type 1 diabetes at an early age has a definite effect on the whole society as a whole, increasing the burden both on the patients themselves and their families, in particular, leading to an earlier development of complications. Since these changes in the development of diabetes have occurred too quickly to be due to changes at the genetic level, they are most likely a consequence of environmental changes.