Supervisors info:
Νικόλαος Τεντολούρης, Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Αλέξανδρος Κόκκινος, Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Ευάγγελος Λυμπερόπουλος, Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
Introduction: Education in healthy eating, in carbohydrate counting and matching the insulin dose are the main pillars of optimal glycaemic control and improved quality of life for children with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D).
Aim: This study investigates whether an intensive education training program by a dietitian can achieve improvements in nutritional knowledge, glycaemic control and quality of life in children with DM1.
Methods: The study included 12 children (10.08±3.60 years, 83.33% boys, 66.67% were in adolescence) and 11 of these children carried a glucose sensor. The intensive training included, two presentations pertaining to healthy eating, carbohydrate counting. At baseline and after the three month intervention the questionnaire PedCarbQuiz was used to assess nutrition knowledge and the questionnaire PedsQL was used to assess quality of life. The assessment of glycemic control was based on a combination of tools, namely HbA1c, TIR, TAR, TBR, CV which were collected at baseline and after the three-month intervention.
Results: The mean HbAc1 value at baseline 7.42 (±1.28) and after the 3-month intervention 7.34 (±0.91) did not differ at a statistically significant level of 5% (p = 0.57). Among the children with the continuous or intermittent recording systems, similarly no statistically significant differences were found in the measurements of TIR, TAR, TBR and CV. Αt baseline the mean value of PEDcarbQuiz score was 45.58 (±4.70), after the three month intervention the mean value of the reported score was 45.96 ( 5.02), with the difference not being statistically significant (p = 0.59). Due to the small number of final sample observations οf PedsQL, an analysis could not be performed to compare quality of life scores, before and after the three month intervention.
Conclusions: After the three month intervention a statistically significant improvement was not observed in the nutritional knowledge, the glycemic control and the quality of life in children with T1D. These results are likely to be due to the small sample size, the short duration of the intervention, the inability to perform personal consultations and to prescribe personal diets. Specifically, if personalized diets had been prescribed to children with T1D, we may possibly have achieved statistically significant results in glycemic control and quality of life which have also been observed in the literature.
Keywords:
Type 1 diabetes, Ιntensive dietary education, Glycaemic control, Quality of life
