ESPE Abstracts

Introduction and aim: The education of the diabetic patients and their parents is an important phase of diabetic treatment. It is accepted in general that good control in diabetes is not possible without enough knowledge and experience about diabetes. In this study it is aimed to evaluate the relation between diabetic education levels of type 1 DM child/adolescent and parents and metabolic control.

Material and method: The study included the patients and their parents who refered to Pediatric Endocrinology clinic and followed at least for 1 year with diagnose of Type 1 DM. Children over 11 years old and their parents performed questionary form which aims to evaluate diabetes knowledge level and daily diabetic management. They had 20 questions, every right answer had 10 points, and diabetes knowledge point (DKP) was measured. Patients had physical examination and anthropometric measures, HbA1c levels in last 1 year used to evaluate metabolic control. HbA1c level <%7.5 was good, %7.5–9 was mild, >%9 was bad in metabolic control.

Results: Mean age of 42 patients (27 girl/15 boy) was 11.6±4.1 (1.6–18.6) years. 69% of patients (n=29) were pubertal. Mean diabetes duration was 4.8±3.3 (1–15) years and mean HbA1c levels were 8.2±1.4% (5.9–12.3%). Metabolic control was evaluated as good in 33.3% (n=14), mild in 38.1% (n=16), bad in 28.6% (n=12). 69% of parents (n=29) evaluated their own diabetes knowledge as good, 16.7% (n=7) as very good and 14.3% (n=6) as mild. When they were asked for usage of diabetes knowledge in management of disease 47.6% of parents (n=20) answered as always, 35.7% (n=15) as often, 9.5% (n=4) as sometimes and 7.1% (n=3) as rarely. DKP of patients was 134.3±35.9 (73–200), of parents was 133.6±25.3 (69–189). No relation was detected between HbA1c levels and patient and parents DKP (P=0.279, P=0.963, respectively). HbA1c levels observed to decrease when usage of diabetes knowledge in management of disease increases, but no statistically difference found (P=0.418). The most important factors affecting HbA1c levels were diabetes duration (P=0.010) and frequency of blood glucose measures (P=0.028).

Conclusion: In this study no relation was found between patients and parents diabetes knowledge levels and metabolic control. It is considered that usage of knowledge in management of disease has impacts on metabolic control but there are more important factor affecting metabolic control.