ESPE Abstracts

Background: Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus(T1DM) is a chronic condition where beta cells of the pancreas are unable to make insulin secondary to their autoimmune T-cell mediated destruction. Patients with one autoimmune disease are prone to having others as well. There has been a link found between Type 1 Diabetes, thyroid function and coeliac disease.

Objective and hypotheses: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of hypothyroidism and coeliac disease in children with T1DM in Paediatric Endocrine clinic in Princess Marina Tertiary Hospital (PMH) in Gaborone, Botswana.

Method: The study was a single centre cross-sectional retrospective study. A secondary data analysis was conducted in children and adolescents aged 0-24 with T1DM. All data was gathered from the database in the PMH Paediatric Endocrine Clinic. This was the information from the internal medical records system (IPMS) as well as information from patient electronic files in safe keeping with the Paediatric Endocrinologists. Thyroid Disorders and Coeliac Diseases were routinely screened for in patients with T1DM who attends the Paediatric Endocrine clinic. The prevalence of thyroid disorders and coeliac disorder in patients with T1DM was analysed using the SPSS 24 statistical software. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Botswana, Princess Marina Hospital and the Botswana Ministry of Health.

Results: There were a total of 305 patients with T1DM who were all analysed. There were 153 females, a total of 299 patients were of African descent, 2 were Asians and 4 were caucasian. Their age distribution was from 0 to 24 years, with 20.0% falling in the age range from 0 – 12 years, 28.2% falling in the age range of 13 – 18 years and 51.8% falling in the age range of 18 – 24 years. Of the 305 patients with T1DM, 8 had coeliac disease, giving a prevalence of 2.6%. Those with hypothyroidism were 9, giving a prevalence of 3.0 %.

Conclusion: The prevalence of Coeliac Disease in children with T1DM in a tertiary referral hospital in a resource limited setting was 2.6%. This prevalence is lower than that reported throughout literature which ranges between 3 - 16 %, with the mean around 8%. The prevalence of hypothyroidism was 3.0 %, which is keeping with prevalence reported in literature which ranged between 2.1%-18%.