Current status of diabetes management, glycemic control and complications in children and adolescents with diabetes in Egypt. Where do we stand now? And where do we go from here?

The Aim: of this study was to use the Diabetes Registry of the Pediatric Diabetes Clinic, Ain Shams University Hospital to examine risk factors related to poor glycemic control and to provide data to health professionals for planning, evaluation and optimizing diabetes care.

Subjects And Methods: Data from 600 children and adolescents with diabetes with information in the registry provide information on current clinical status, metabolic control, acute and long-term complications, presence of concomitant autoimmune diseases, and psychiatric aspects of patients.

Results: Mean age of patients was 13.3±5.1 years, mean duration of diabetes was 6.4±3.6 years, mean HbA1c was 8.8±4.6% [73±27 mmol/mol], and 71% had poor glycemic control. Acute complications included ketoacidosis in 19.7% and severe hypoglycemia in 2.8%. Chronic complications including peripheral neuropathy, retinopathy, and persistent microalbuminuria were present in 6.3%, 1.8%, and 6.8%, respectively. The majority (97.2%) were on intensive insulin therapy. Patients with poor glycemic control had higher disease duration, DKA frequency and diabetic microvascular complications. However, regular education lecture attendance and regular SMBG were associated with better glycemic control.

Conclusions: These registry data indicate that although the majority of the patients were on intensive insulin therapy, poor glycemic control was common and diabetic microvascular complications were observed. These findings will provide potential avenues to improve quality of care and could be the first step in the development of a national registry for diabetes in Egypt.