Academic skills in children with early-onset type 1 diabetes: the effects of diabetes-related risk factors

Aim The study aimed to assess the effects of diabetes‐related risk factors, especially severe hypoglycaemia, on the academic skills of children with early‐onset type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Method The study comprised 63 children with T1DM (31 females, 32 males; mean age 9y 11mo, SD 4mo) and 92 comparison children without diabetes (40 females, 52 males; mean age 9y 9mo, SD 3mo). Children were included if T1DM had been diagnosed before the age of 5 years and if they were aged between 9 and 10 years at the time of study. Children were not included if their native language was not Finnish and if they had a diagnosed neurological disorder that affected their cognitive development. Among the T1DM group, 37 had and 26 had not experienced severe hypoglycaemia and 26 had avoided severe hypoglycaemia. Severe hypoglycaemia, diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), and glycaemic control were used as T1DM‐related factors. Task performance in reading, spelling, and mathematics was compared among the three groups, and the effects of the T1DM‐related factors were analysed with general linear models. Results The groups with (p