Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Children and young people with type 1 diabetes are usually managed by multidisciplinary teams (MDT) based in secondary care. Many of them have co-morbidities, which may or may not be associated with diabetes. Presence of co-morbidity increases health care needs and costs. Such co-morbidities in adult patients with diabetes are primarily managed by the general practitioners (GP) (Struijs, Baan et al.; 2006). Our aim was to analyse the prevalence of co-morbidities in paediatric patients with type 1 diabetes in our local population and to identify the responsible professional for management of these co-morbidities.

Method: In this cross sectional, retrospective audit we identified all current patients with type 1 diabetes registered in the Twinkle database. The co-morbidities in these patients were identified by case note analysis, information from the database and recall from MDT members. Patients with psychological, behavioural, eating disorders and type 2 diabetes were excluded.

Results: We identified 245 active paediatric patients with type 1 diabetes (ages 0–18 years) on the Twinkle database. Fifty patients (20%) had a total of 68 co-morbidities with 12/50 (24%) patients having more than one co-morbidity. Of the 68 co-morbidities, 18/68 (26%) were diabetes associated. The majority 43/68 (63%) of the co-morbidities were managed by secondary care, 22/68 (32%) were managed by the diabetes team and 3/68 (5%) were managed by the GP.

Conclusion: Co-morbidities are common in children with type 1 diabetes. Majority of these are managed in secondary care and the diabetes team manages more than one third of these. It is important to identify these during the MDT consultation to address any unmet needs of patients and families.