Growth Disorders in Children with Type 1 Diabetes in Aswan, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Type 1 diabetes mellitus is the most common chronic metabolic disorder in children. Diabetic children who take proper nutrition and good care attain normal growth status. One sign of poorly controlled diabetes is poor growth. Objective: This study was conducted to assess the growth parameters (weight, height, and body mass index) in diabetic children and to study the impact of age at diagnosis, duration of the disease, and disease control on the growth parameters. Patients and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that carried out on diabetic children aged from 6 to 18 years old in 8 months period. History, examination with stress on anthropometric measurement (weight, height, and body mass index) together with HbA1c level was done. Results: Mean HbA1c was (10.85 ± 2.299) %. Patients with HbA1c of more than 9% were 75.5%. There was an insignificant negative correlation between HbA1c and age and disease duration and a significant negative correlation between HbA1c and tanner staging, but there was no relation between HbA1c and sex or family history. There was a significant negative correlation between HbA1c and weight, HbA1c, and body mass index, while there was an insignificant negative correlation between HbA1c and height. There was an insignificant correlation of weight to disease duration, while there was a significant positive correlation of height to disease duration. Conclusion: in this study, most of our patients were uncontrolled diabetic patients. Weight, height, and BMI were less in uncontrolled patients than controlled patients.