Remission Period in Children With Newly Diagnosed Type 1 Diabetes During the COVID-19 Pandemic-Results From the DPV Registry.

Abstract

To investigate whether the remission period in type 1 diabetes, as measured by insulin-dose adjusted A1c (IDAA1C), was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from 7603 children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes from the prospective diabetes follow-up (DPV) registry were available. We compared two time periods of diabetes onset, 2020/2021 vs. 2018/2019. IDAA1C and remission prevalence (IDAA1c < 9%) were analyzed using logistic and linear regression models adjusted for age groups (0.5-<6, 6-<12, and 12-<18 years), sex, diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) at onset, use of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems, insulin pumps, sensor-augmented pumps (SAPs) or automated insulin delivery (AID) systems, BMI categories (<90. percentile of BMI, 90. -<97. percentile of BMI, 97. -<99.5 percentile of BMI, > = 99.5 percentile of BMI) and immigrant background. Data from three time periods were analyzed: 3-5 months, 6-10 months, and 11-13 months after diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. Compared to the prepandemic period, during the COVID-19 pandemic adjusted IDAA1C was significantly higher at 3-5 months after diagnosis (mean estimated differences 0.26 [95% confidence interval 0.17; 0.35], p  < 0.001), but not at 6-10 months and 11-13 months after diagnosis (mean estimated difference 0.08 [-0.01; 0.17], p=0.07; and -0.03 [-0.12; 0.07], p=0.60), reflecting a lower percentage of patients in remission at 3-5 months. Reasons may be changes in autoimmune progression during the pandemic, lack of physical activities, increased stress or psychological burden, or altered access to care with delayed diagnosis of diabetes. Underlying causes need to be evaluated in future studies.