Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Recent studies have reported a correlation between the increase in incidence of Type 1 Diabetes (T1DM) in children and young people (CYP) and SARS-COVID19 Infection.

Aims and objectives: To study if there is an increase in TIDM incidence in CYP (aged 0-18yrs) post-covid19 (April 2020- March 2021) in East of England (EOE) region compared to previous years (April 2018- March 2020). To identify a correlation between T1DM incidence and the UK COVID19 incidence pattern.

Method: Survey of T1DM monthly incidence across all paediatric diabetes units (PDU) in EOE. Analysis performed using Excel graphs and Kruskal- Wallis test using SPSS software.

Results: All 17 PDU across EOE responded (100% response rate). There was an increase in T1DM incidence across EOE in 2020-2021 (429 cases) compared to 2018-2019 (333 cases) and 2019-2020 (382 cases). This increase in T1DM incidence is significant year on year when comparing 3 years (Kruskal Wallis P=0.0143). However the increase in T1DM incidence pre-COVID19 compared to post-COVID19 is not significant (Kruskal-Wallis 2019/20 vs 2020/21 P=0.245). The T1DM peak incidence across EOE was seen in June to August 2020, December 2020 to March 2021. This appears to be 3 to 4 months after the UK COVID19 waves in April 2020 (wave 1) and October 2020 to January 21 (wave 2). The seasonal viral infections were disrupted in 2020-2021 due to dominance of COVID19. The pattern of monthly TIDM incidence seen in 2020-2021 across EOE is different compared to previous years.

Conclusion: There is an increase in T1DM incidence in 2020-2021, which is not significant compared to the pre-COVID 2019-2020 year. This corresponds with the natural annual increase in TIDM incidence in CYP. The peak monthly TIDM incidence across EOE appears to be 3-4 months post-UK covid19 waves and is different to the pattern from previous years which suggests a possible correlation between the TIDM incidence and COVID 19 infections. However from this survey, a causal relationship cannot be established especially given the complex multifactorial aetiology of T1DM and more research is required.