Sport Participation Differences Among Children, Youth And Young Adults With Type 1 Diabetes

Abstract

Engaging in regular physical activity is recommended for children, youth and young adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) to improve insulin sensitivity and control blood glucose. PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to determine if there were differences between age and sports team participation among children, youth and young adults with T1D, and to identify the most frequently reported type of sport and physical activity. METHODS: This study was conducted with patients with T1D during their regularly scheduled pediatric endocrinology appointment. Participants were asked to complete a sport participation electronic survey assessing number of sports played within the past year (i.e., 0, 1, 2, 3 or more sports) and the sport or physical activity that they participated in most or was the most important to them. Survey data were linked to their medical records for age categories (children aged 7-12 years old, youth aged 13-17 years old, and young adults aged 18-26 years old). RESULTS: A total of 192 participants completed the study. A Kruskal-Wallis rank test showed a statistically significant difference in sport participation in the mean ranks between the age groups, H(2) = 12.13, p < .05, with pairwise comparisons indicating statistically significant differences from children to young adults and from youth to young adults. Almost 2/3 of children (62.9%; n = 39 of 61) and youth (63.4%; n = 59 of 92) played one or more sports per year with basketball and soccer reported most frequently, while fewer than 1/3 of young adults (30.8%; n = 12 of 39) played sports with walking reported most frequently. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study indicate that as children with T1D age, they become less involved in sports, and the types of sports and physical activities they engage in change as well. Understanding the decrease in frequency of participation in sport or physical activity in addition to the emergence of walking as the primary type of activity can help pediatric endocrinology care teams to prescribe individualized physical activity recommendations based on patients’ patterns and preferences.