[Diabetes mellitus in children. Therapeutic control, social conditions and self care]. / Diabetes mellitus hos barn. Behandlingskontroll, sosiale forhold og egenomsorg.

We present a descriptive study of children with diabetes mellitus in Sør-Trøndelag county. The study included 66 children. Eight of these children had at least one other chronic disease in addition to diabetes. 31 children used more than two insulin injections daily. The median value of HbA1c was 8.6%. HbA1c was positively correlated with duration of diabetes. However, for the children who were out of remission, HbA1c was positively correlated with age and negatively with number of meals per day. Children whose parents were divorced or single had higher HbA1c than children whose parents were married or lived together. HbA1c was also higher among children who received special lessons at school than among children who did not receive such lessons. Thus, age, duration of diabetes and psychosocial factors were the most important determinants for metabolic control in our study.