Evaluating the efficiency of medical care for children with diabetes mellitus in different regions of Ukraine over the past 20 years (2002–2021) of peacetime

Background. The growing number of children with diabetes creates a global economic problem, including a financial burden on the country’s health care system and economic stress for families of children with diabetes. The purpose was to assess the effectiveness of medical care for children with diabetes in different regions of Ukraine over the last 20 years (2002–2021) of peacetime. Material and methods. The article presents the results of statistical evaluation and epidemiological analysis of data from the Center for Medical Statistics of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine on the rates of disability, hospitalization, and inpatient care among the pediatric population in 2002–2021. Statistical processing of the results was carried out using MS Excel, XLSTAT-Pro. Results. During 2002–2021, an increase in the rate of primary disability due to diabetes mellitus was highest among adolescents — by 4.1 times and lowest among primary schoolchildren — by 3.4 times; among children 0–6 years old, it increased by 3.6 times. The proportion of children with disabilities due to diabetes as of 2017 is 12 % among the age group of 0–6 years, and 25 % in adolescents (15–17 years). In 2013–2021, the hospitalization rate among children with diabetes increased from 1.27 to 1.35 per 1,000 of the relevant population, and the average length of hospital stay decreased by 19 %. The rate of mortality due to diabetes complications among hospitalized children varies and does not have a specific trend (in 2021, it was 0.02 per 100 in-patients). Conclusions. The analysis of the efficiency of medical care for children with diabetes during 2002–2021 in the context of increasing prevalence and incidence of diabetes showed stable trends towards a huge increase in the level of primary and general disability, a slight increase in hospitalization rates, and a decrease in the average length of hospital stay. These results call for a detailed study of the causes, control, and revision of protocol documents for the management of such patients.