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Introduction The authors aimed to answer the following questions: 1) What level of knowledge of type 1 diabetes do the parents of children and young adults with this disease have? 2) Will this level of knowledge increase after 1 year of observation? 3) Does improving the knowledge of young adults and their parents result in better metabolic control of the patients? Material and methods This study included 227 patients between the ages of 5 and 20 years with type 1 diabetes. The research was conducted from March 2009 to June 2011. The following two time points were examined: the beginning of the study (test 1a) and one year later (test 1b). The knowledge levels of the patients and parents were obtained using a survey and a knowledge test. Results Comparison of the results from the two study time points showed that the respondents had a significantly higher level of knowledge after 1 year (p = 0.001). The comparison of glycated hemoglobin levels between the two time points in patients with type 1 diabetes revealed that the levels were significantly higher at test 1b compared to test 1a (p = 0.0005). Conclusions The parents of children and young adults with type 1 diabetes demonstrate a satisfactory level of theoretical knowledge of therapeutic conduct and self-monitoring principles. The test 1b results demonstrated a higher level of theoretical knowledge in all respondents and poorer metabolic control. Poorer metabolic control in some patients suggests that metabolic control in type 1 diabetes depends on factors other than education. Further research is necessary to determine these additional factors.

Introduction The majority of hyperglycaemic incidents in oncohaematological patients treated with glucocorticosteroids remain undiagnosed. The aim of our study was to work out a detailed protocol for the control of carbohydrate metabolism and to evaluate whether such a protocol can help in diagnosis of carbohydrate metabolism disturbances in oncohaematological paediatric patients. Material and methods A one hundred and twenty-eight children treated for proliferative diseases of the haematopoietic system and severe aplastic anaemia with therapeutic protocols including glucocorticosteroids were divided into two groups. Group I consisted of 70 children, whose blood glucose was evaluated on random occasions (retrospective analysis). Group II consisted of 58 children included in the programme of intensive carbohydrate metabolism control (prospective analysis). We compared the incidence of hyperglycaemia in both groups as well as the number of hyperglycaemic incidents per individual therapeutic protocol. Results A significantly higher incidence of transient hyperglycaemia was noted in oncohaematological patients in the programme of early carbohydrate metabolism disturbances diagnosis than in the other group (22.4% vs. 5.7% respectively; p = 0.008), especially in patients treated with the ALL IC-BFM 2002 protocol for the high risk group (arm A and B), the ALL-REZ BFM 2002 protocol, and in a heterogenous group of children (protocols ALCL 99, Euro-LB02, Interfant-06, WPSAA) (p = 0.042, 0.021 and 0.002, respectively). Conclusions The improvement of transient hyperglycaemia detection may constitute the first step towards the reduction of unfavourable consequences of hyperglycaemia. Prospective studies are required to demonstrate the influence of normal carbohydrate metabolism on the frequency of infectious complications in this group.