Search

The type 1 diabetes community is coalescing around the benefits and advantages of early screening for disease risk. To be accepted by healthcare providers, regulatory authorities and payers, screening programmes need to show that the testing variables allow accurate risk prediction and that individualised risk-informed monitoring plans are established, as well as operational feasibility, cost-effectiveness and acceptance at population level. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to contribute to solving these issues, starting with the identification and stratification of at-risk individuals. ASSET (AI for Sustainable Prevention of Autoimmunity in the Society; www.asset.healthcare) is a public/private consortium that was established to contribute to research around screening for type 1 diabetes and particularly to how AI can drive the implementation of a precision medicine approach to disease prevention. ASSET will additionally focus on issues pertaining to operational implementation of screening. The authors of this article, researchers and clinicians active in the field of type 1 diabetes, met in an open forum to independently debate key issues around screening for type 1 diabetes and to advise ASSET. The potential use of AI in the analysis of longitudinal data from observational cohort studies to inform the design of improved, more individualised screening programmes was also discussed. A key issue was whether AI would allow the research community and industry to capitalise on large publicly available data repositories to design screening programmes that allow the early detection of individuals at high risk and enable clinical evaluation of preventive therapies. Overall, AI has the potential to revolutionise type 1 diabetes screening, in particular to help identify individuals who are at increased risk of disease and aid in the design of appropriate follow-up plans. We hope that this initiative will stimulate further research on this very timely topic.

Objectives Children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) are not included in guidelines regarding diagnosis criteria for celiac disease (CD) without a diagnostic biopsy, due to lack of data. We explored whether tissue transglutaminase antibodies (anti-tTG) that were >= 10 times the upper limit of normal (10x ULN) predicted CD in T1D. Methods Data from the Swedish prospective Better Diabetes Diagnosis study was used, and 2035 children and adolescents with T1D diagnosed between 2005-2010 were included. Of these, 32 had been diagnosed with CD before T1D. The children without CD were repeatedly screened for CD using anti-tTG antibodies of immunoglobulin type A. In addition, their human leukocyte antigen (HLA) were genotyped. All children with positive anti-tTG were advised to undergo biopsy. Biopsies were performed on 119 children and graded using the Marsh-Oberhuber classification. Results All of the 60 children with anti-tTG >= 10x ULN had CD verified by biopsies. The degree of mucosal damage correlated with anti-tTG levels. Among 2003 screened children, 6.9% had positive anti-tTG and 5.6% were confirmed CD. The overall CD prevalence, when including the 32 children with CD before T1D, was 7.0% (145/2035). All but one of the children diagnosed with CD had HLA-DQ2 and/or DQ8. Conclusions As all screened children and adolescents with T1D with tissue transglutaminase antibodies above 10 times the positive value 10x ULN had CD, we propose that the guidelines for diagnosing CD in screened children, when biopsies can be omitted, should also apply to children and adolescents with T1D as a noninvasive method., Funding Agencies|Barndiabetesfonden; Skane County Councils Research and Development Foundation

Objectives: To identify differences and similarities in HbA1c levels and patterns regarding age and gender in eight high-income countries. Subjects: 66 071 children and adolescents below18 years of age with type 1 diabetes for at least 3 months and at least one HbA1c measurement during the study period. Methods: Pediatric Diabetes Quality Registry data from Austria, Denmark, England, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the United States, and Wales were collected between 2013 and 2014. HbA1c, gender, age, and duration were used in the analysis. Results: Distribution of gender and age groups was similar in the eight participating countries. The mean HbA1c varied from 60 to 73 mmol/mol (7.6%-8.8%) between the countries. The increase in HbA1c between the youngest (0-9 years) to the oldest (15-17 years) age group was close to 8 mmol/mol (0.7%) in all countries (P <.001). Females had a 1 mmol/mol (0.1%) higher mean HbA1c than boys (P <.001) in seven out of eight countries. Conclusions: In spite of large differences in the mean HbA1c between countries, a remarkable similarity in the increase of HbA1c from childhood to adolescence was found.

OBJECTIVE: International studies on childhood type 1 diabetes (T1D) have focused on whole-country mean HbA1c levels, thereby concealing potential variations within countries. We aimed to explore the variations in HbA1c across and within eight high-income countries to best inform international benchmarking and policy recommendations.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Data were collected between 2013 and 2014 from 64,666 children with T1D who were <18 years of age across 528 centers in Germany, Austria, England, Wales, U.S., Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. We used fixed- and random-effects models adjusted for age, sex, diabetes duration, and minority status to describe differences between center means and to calculate the proportion of total variation in HbA1c levels that is attributable to between-center differences (intraclass correlation [ICC]). We also explored the association between within-center variation and children's glycemic control.RESULTS: Sweden had the lowest mean HbA1c (59 mmol/mol [7.6%]) and together with Norway and Denmark showed the lowest between-center variations (ICC ≤4%). Germany and Austria had the next lowest mean HbA1c (61-62 mmol/mol [7.7-7.8%]) but showed the largest center variations (ICC ∼15%). Centers in England, Wales, and the U.S. showed low-to-moderate variation around high mean values. In pooled analysis, differences between counties remained significant after adjustment for children characteristics and center effects (P value <0.001). Across all countries, children attending centers with more variable glycemic results had higher HbA1c levels (5.6 mmol/mol [0.5%] per 5 mmol/mol [0.5%] increase in center SD of HbA1c values of all children attending a specific center).CONCLUSIONS: At similar average levels of HbA1c, countries display different levels of center variation. The distribution of glycemic achievement within countries should be considered in developing informed policies that drive quality improvement.

Measuring the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is one way to understand an individuals perspective on health, and, more specifically, how type 1 diabetes (T1D) affects a childs everyday life. Early detection of poor HRQOL is considered a crucial factor for identifying children who are at risk of psychosocial problems. The aim of this study was to describe the differences in the HRQOL of children with T1D according to age, gender, and metabolic control (HbA1c). Cross-sectional data were collected from children with T1D using the DISABKIDS Chronic Generic Measure-37 (DCGM-37) and the diabetes specific module (DM-10). Non-parametric tests were used to investigate differences. There were differences between girls and boys, and girls reported lower HRQOL than boys (HRQOL total score: mean 74 and 67 respectively; p = .005). Adolescents described more worries and fears about the future compared with younger children. Children with poor metabolic control reported a lower HRQOL than those with better metabolic control (HRQOL total score: mean 68 and 76 respectively; p = .006), but the social dimensions were not affected. The findings of the present study elucidate the importance for paediatric nurses to explore potential problems in children with T1D and use this knowledge in clinical practice. Assessment of the HRQOL can provide the patients perspective on the quality of diabetes care. The HRQOL is correlated with HbA1c, gender, and age, and the HRQOL as well as HbA1c levels should be regularly assessed to establish a comprehensive care for children with T1D.

Aims/hypothesis Some studies have revealed a relationship between Caesarean section (CS) and type 1 diabetes, while other studies have not. By using the Swedish paediatric quality register we investigated whether birth by CS is related to the risk of developing type 1 diabetes during childhood. Methods All children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes from 2000 to 2012 and included in the register (n= 9,376) were matched with four controls by year, day of birth, sex and county of birth from the Swedish Medical Birth Register. Results Overall, 13.5% of deliveries were by CS. By group, 14.7% of children who developed type 1 diabetes were delivered by CS compared with 13.3% of control children (p less than 0.001). Mothers with diabetes more often gave birth by CS than mothers without diabetes (78.8% vs 12.7%, p less than 0.001). In a logistic regression model adjusting for maternal age, maternal diabetes and BMI in early pregnancy, the OR for CS was 1.0. A child who developed type 1 diabetes and had a mother with type 1 diabetes at the time of delivery had the highest OR to have been born by CS. Children of mothers without diabetes, delivered by CS, had no increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes. Maternal diabetes was the strongest predictor of childhood diabetes (OR 3.4), especially if the mother had type 1 diabetes (OR 7.54). Conclusions/interpretation CS had no influence on the risk of type 1 diabetes during childhood or adolescence. However, maternal diabetes itself strongly increased the risk of offspring developing type 1 diabetes., Funding Agencies|Futurum, the academy for health care, Jonkoping county council

The management of diabetes is complicated, as treatment affects the everyday life of both children and their families. To enable optimal care for children with type I diabetes, it is important to highlight health-related quality of life (HrQoL) as well as medical outcomes to detect psychological problems that otherwise could be missed. The aim was to study HrQoL in children and adolescents with type I diabetes dependent on gender, age and co-morbidity and to study the consistency between childrens self-reporting and parents proxy reporting. The cross-sectional data were collected using the questionnaire DISABKIDS Chronic Generic Measure and the DISABKIDS diabetes module. Parents in the proxy report perceived their childrens HrQoL to be lower than children themselves. Boys reported their HrQoL to be better than girls. Results show that living with an additional disease has an impact on the HrQoL, which is an important factor to consider in the quality registry. Assessing HrQoL on a routine basis may facilitate detection and discussion of HrQoL-related questions in the national quality registry.

Background: Several studies show that good metabolic control is important for children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes. In Sweden, there are large differences in mean haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) in different hospitals and difficulties implementing national guidelines in everyday practice. This study shows how the participation in an improvement collaborative could facilitate improvements in the quality of care by paediatric diabetes teams. The Swedish paediatric diabetes quality registry, SWEDIABKIDS was used as a tool and resource for feedback and outcome measures. Methods: Twelve teams at paediatric diabetes centres, caring for 30% (2302/7660) of patients in Sweden, participated in an 18-month quality improvement program. Each team defined treatment targets, areas needing improvement, and action plans. The main outcome was the centre patients mean HbA1c levels, but other clinical variables and change concepts were also studied. Data from the previous six months were compared with the first six months after starting the program, and the long-term follow up after another eleven months. Results: All centres reduced mean HbA1c during the second and third periods compared with the first. The mean reduction for all was 3.7 mmol/mol (pless than0.001), compared with non-participating centres who improved their mean HbA1c with 1.7 mmol/mol during the same period. Many of the participating centres reduced the frequency of severe hypoglycaemia and/or ketoacidosis, and five centres reached their goal of ensuring that all patients had some sort of physical activity at least once weekly. Change concepts were, for example, improved guidelines, appointment planning, informing the patients, improving teamwork and active use of the registry, and health promotion activities. Conclusions: By involving paediatric diabetes teams in a quality improvement collaborative together with access to a quality register, the quality of paediatric diabetes care can improve, thereby contributing t

n/a