We we’re wondering if there are any studies or statistics informing us on the glycemic control of diabetic children aging from 10 to 15 years of age. We’d like further information on how well they manage to control their blood sugar level by adapting their insulin dosage, their food intake and their exercise regimen.

It is rather difficult to answer your questions precisely without a clearer idea as to why you need the information. However it would be reasonable to say that the most widely accepted benchmark for glycemic control is the hemoglobin A1c level and that a value that is within 1% or a little more of the upper level of normal for the method used would be considered excellent control, provided it was not accompanied by significant hypoglycemia.

The difficulty in defining the factors that are involved in achieving control in individual children are considerable because there are so many variables some of which are particularly hard to assess. In most cases good control is easiest to achieve if there is a diabetes care team which includes not only a physician but a nurse educator, a dietitian and a medical social worker and other factors that help are easy telephone and fax access to team members, local support groups and familiarity with Internet sites like Children with Diabetes. Some kind of simple-to-read manual like Peter Chase’s Understanding Insulin-Dependent Diabetes can be a considerable help and it can be downloaded from www.uchsc.edu/misc/diabetes/UIDDM.html without charge.

Very important too and sometimes much less easy to measure are factors like family emotional strength and education, the intactness and size of the family, age, gender and type and duration of the diabetes. Another factor that militates against outcome research in this field is the constantly changing technology of care particularly, in this age group, with the increasing use of insulin pumps for example.

DOB