medwireNews: Researchers have identified a marked increase in the proportion of children and adolescents who have diabetic ketoacidosis at the point of type 1 diabetes diagnosis during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Clemens Kamrath (Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany) and study co-authors looked at data from 532 children and adolescents who were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes between March 13 and May 13 2020 at 216 centers in Germany.
At presentation, 44.7% of these children and adolescents had diabetic ketoacidosis and 19.4% had severe ketoacidosis, the team reports in a research letter published in JAMA.
The rate of diabetic ketoacidosis was significantly higher than the corresponding rates over the same periods in the preceding 2 years, which were 24.5% in 2019 and 24.1% in 2018, giving adjusted relative risks of 1.84 and 1.85, respectively.
Likewise, the rates of severe ketoacidosis were 13.9% in 2019 and 12.3% in 2018, giving significant adjusted relative risks of 1.37 and 1.55, respectively.
The researchers found the risk for presenting with diabetic ketoacidosis during the pandemic to be particularly high among children younger than 6 years. The adjusted relative risks in this group were 2.12 to 2.75 for diabetic ketoacidosis and 1.90 to 2.06 for severe acidosis, compared with the earlier time periods.
“Underlying causes may be multifactorial and reflect reduced medical services, fear of approaching the health care system, and more complex psychosocial factors,” suggests the team.
medwireNews is an independent medical news service provided by Springer Healthcare. © 2020 Springer Healthcare part of the Springer Nature Group
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