Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on treatment of Type 1 diabetes in children.

Keywords: COVID19; Type 1 diabetes; children; HbA1c; telemedicine EN COVID19 Type 1 diabetes children HbA1c telemedicine 933 934 2 02/19/21 20210301 NES 210301 Children tend to get very mild symptoms of COVID19 and rarely get severely ill,1 and COVID19 has no specific influence on diabetes other than any other infection.2 However, Covid19 may delay diagnosis, and lock-down of society can lead to that patients with diabetes do not get ordinary care causing poor metabolic control with increasing risks for complications3,4 and excess mortality.5 Sweden has, as the only country, chosen a policy with recommended isolation of the most vulnerable populations, but otherwise a rather open society. So far HbA1c has not increased but remained comparatively low with about 2/3 of the patients with HbA1c < 57 mmol/L (=6.5%) and only ca 6% of the patients with HbA1c > 70 mmol/L, a level which seems to be rather common in several other countries.10 To use telemedicine as the only alternative will probably not be good enough in the long run, especially not for patients with psychological problems and less stable family situation. COVID19, Type 1 diabetes, children, HbA1c, telemedicine. [Extracted from the article]