Journal of Diabetes Mellitus, 2017, 7, 41-54 http://www.scirp.org/journal/jdm ISSN Online: 2160-5858 ISSN Print: 2160-5831 DOI: 10.4236/jdm.2017.72004 May 8, 2017 Clinical Demographic Patterns of Type 1 Diabetes in Saudi Children in Tabuk City, 2000-2010 Laila Ahmed Albishi 1* , Mustafa Mohammed Altoonisi 2 , Sawsan Mohammed Alblewi 1 , Rihab Hafez Osman 3 , Nehal Abdugadir Ahmed 2 , Mohammed Fararjeh 4 1 Pediatric Department, Medical College, Tabuk University, Tabuk, KSA 2 Pediatric Department, King Salman Military Hospital, Tabuk, KSA 3 King Fahad Specialist Hospital, Dammam, KSA 4 King Abdulaziz Cardiac Center, Riyadh, KSA Abstract We aimed to identify the variation in the clinical background of children di- agnosed with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) at King Salman Military Hos- pital (KSMH), Tabuk City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from 2000 to 2010. Methods: This retrospective observational study was based on the clinical records of pediatric diabetes outpatients at KSMH. All children aged <12 years who were diagnosed with T1DM and were followed up at the diabetes clinic from 2000 to 2010, were enrolled. The local variables associated with the clin- ical presentation in these patients, including age, sex, body mass index (BMI), and season of onset, were evaluated. Results: Of 313 patients recruited, female patients were predominant (p = 0.002). The mean age of onset was 6.46 years (standard deviation, 3.02). One-third of the newly diagnosed patients were overweight (35.5%). Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) was the presenting feature in 38.0% of patients, wherein female patients and those aged 0 - 3 years exhi- bited the highest likelihood of developing DKA (odds ratio, 1.7 and 2.9, re- spectively). Moreover, underweight children had a greater DKA incidence than healthy, overweight, or obese children (p = 0.02). Conclusion: This study provides additional data on T1DM in the population of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In particular, we found a female predominance at presentation as well as 2 peaks for age at onset. Moreover, the BMI was lower in younger age groups overall, but was greater in older boys. Furthermore, the DKA rates were high in younger children. Thus, our data confirm the presence of varia- ble clinical patterns in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which requires further epidemiological analysis using national registry data. How to cite this paper: Albishi, L.A., Altoonisi, M.M., Alblewi, S.M., Osman, R.H., Ahmed, N.A. and Fararjeh, M. (2017) Clinical Demographic Patterns of Type 1 Diabetes in Saudi Children in Tabuk City, 2000-2010. Journal of Diabetes Mellitus, 7, 41-54. https://doi.org/10.4236/jdm.2017.72004 Received: February 24, 2017 Accepted: May 5, 2017 Published: May 8, 2017 Copyright © 2017 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access