NUTRITIONAL HABITS, COMPLIANCE WITH HEALTHY DIET AND INSULIN THERAPY, DEPRESSION AND FAMILY FUNCTIONALITY IN CHILDREN WITH TYPE 1 DIABETES MELLITUS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC PERIOD

Context: The relationship between life changes and glycemic control in children with type 1 diabetes during the pandemic period was examined.

Objective: We aimed to investigate the effect of the pandemic period on 66 children (aged 5-18 years) with type 1 diabetes using scales evaluating family functionality, nutritional habits, adherence to treatment and depression status.

Design: It is a cross-sectional clinical and laboratory study using certain scales for its descriptive features.

Subjects And Methods: Demographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements, laboratory investigations were evaluated. Family functionality of the patients were evaluated with Smilkstein's family APGAR scale, motivation and knowledge levels were evaluated with the 6-item Morisky medication adherence scale (MMAS-6), nutritional habits were evaluated with the Mediterranean diet quality index (KIDMED), and depression status was evaluated with the children depression inventory (CDI).

Results: The mean HbA level increased significantly in the first year of the pandemic compared to the onset of the pandemic period (8.5% . 8.9%, p: 0.003). In the responses to these scales, children with diabetes have high family functionality (89.4%), high motivation (90.9%) and high knowledge level about adherence to treatment (97%). Furthermore, healthy eating habits (high KIDMED index scores 92.4%), and low degree of depression score (95.5%) have been observed. We detected a statistically significant positive correlation between HbA and CDI scores (r: 0.27; p: 0.02), and a negative correlation between HbA and MMAS-6 motivation score (r: -0.30; p: 0.01).

Conclusions: In this study, the effect of motivation and mood changes on glycemic control was more clearly demonstrated.