Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on management of children and adolescents with Type 1 diabetes.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had widespread impacts on the lives of parents and children. We determined how the pandemic affected Type 1 diabetes patients at a large urban pediatric teaching hospital. METHODS: We compared patient characteristics, glycemic control, PHQ-9 depression screen, in person and virtual outpatient encounters, hospitalizations and continuous glucose monitor (CGM) utilization in approximately 1600 patients in 1 year periods preceding and following the local imposition of COVID-related restrictions on 3/15/2020 ("2019" and "2020" groups, respectively). RESULTS: In a generalized linear model, increasing age, non-commercial insurance, Black and Hispanic race/ethnicity, and non-utilization of CGMs were all associated with higher hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), but there was no difference between the 2019 and 2020 groups. The time in range in CGM users was lower with non-commercial insurance and in Black and Hispanic patients; it improved slightly from 2019 to 2020. CGM utilization by patients with non-commercial insurance (93% of such patients were in government programs, 7% uninsured or "other") increased markedly. In 2020, patients with commercial insurance (i.e., private-pay or provided by an employer) had fewer office visits, but insurance status did not influence utilization of the virtual visit platform. There was no change in hospitalization frequency from 2019 to 2020 in either commercially or non-commercially insured patients, but patients with non-commercial insurance were hospitalized at markedly higher frequencies in both years. PHQ-9 scores were unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: Hospitalization frequency, glycemic control and depression screening were unchanged in our large urban pediatric teaching hospital during the COVID pandemic. Increased utilization of CGM and rapid adoption of telemedicine may have ameliorated the impact of the pandemic on disease management.

Risk factors for hospitalization in youth with type 1 diabetes: Development and validation of a multivariable prediction model.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a multivariable prediction model to identify patients with type 1 diabetes at increased risk of hospitalization for diabetic ketoacidosis or hyperglycemia with ketosis in the 12 months following assessment. METHODS: Retrospective review of clinical data from patients with type 1 diabetes less than 17 years old at a large academic children's hospital (5732 patient years, 652 admissions). Data from the previous 12 months were assessed on October 15, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, and used to predict hospitalization in the following 12 months using generalized estimating equations. Variables that were significant predictors of hospitalization in univariate analyses were entered into a multivariable model. 2014 to 2016 data were used as a training dataset, and 2017 to 2019 data for validation. Discrimination of the model was assessed with receiver operator characteristic curves. RESULTS: Admission in the preceding year, hemoglobin (Hb)A1c, non-commercial insurance, female sex, and non-White race were all individual predictors of hospitalization, but age, duration of diabetes and number of office visits in the preceding year were not. In multivariable analysis with threshold P < .0033, admissions in the previous 12 months, HbA1c, and non-commercial insurance remained as significant predictors. The model identified a subset of ~8% of the patients with a collective 42% risk of hospitalization, thus increased 5-fold compared with the 8% risk of hospitalization in the remaining 93% of patients. Similar results were obtained with the validation dataset. CONCLUSION: Our multivariable prediction model identified patients at increased risk of admission in the 12 months following assessment.

Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia Due to Steroid 21-Hydroxylase Deficiency: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline.

Objective: To update the congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to steroid 21-hydroxylase deficiency clinical practice guideline published by the Endocrine Society in 2010. Conclusions: The writing committee presents updated best practice guidelines for the clinical management of congenital adrenal hyperplasia based on published evidence and expert opinion with added considerations for patient safety, quality of life, cost, and utilization.

Maternal depressive symptoms predict adolescent healthcare utilization and charges in youth with type 1 diabetes (T1D).

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether maternal depressive symptoms predict diabetes-related health care utilization and charges in adolescents with Type 1 diabetes. METHOD: Mothers of adolescents ages 11-18 with Type 1 diabetes completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale at enrollment and at 12-month follow-up. Demographic and disease-related variables, including HbA1c, were also assessed. Health care utilization data and charges for diabetes-related care (i.e., endocrine clinic visits, emergency room visits, and hospitalizations) for the period of 12 and 24 months following enrollment were assessed. RESULTS: Maternal depressive symptoms at enrollment predicted higher utilization/charges at 12- and 24-month follow-up, after controlling for demographic and disease-related variables and adolescent depressive symptoms. High maternal depressive symptoms at baseline were associated with $8,405 additional charges over the next 2 years. Adolescents of mothers with high depressive symptoms were twice as likely to have an emergency room visit and three times as likely to have a hospitalization. CONCLUSION: Maternal depressive symptoms are an independent predictor of health care utilization and charges in adolescents with Type 1 diabetes. Interventions aimed at identifying and treating depressive symptoms in mothers could not only enhance caregiver quality of life but could also be economically advantageous for payers and providers.

Somatic items in the assessment of depressive symptoms in pediatric patients with diabetes.

Depression inventories contain somatic items which may be related to disease rather than to depression in individuals with chronic illness. Adolescents with type 1 diabetes (n = 151) and medically well controls (n = 68) completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) which includes somatic and cognitive/affective symptoms. Diabetes patients reported higher levels of all depressive symptoms than controls; the discrepancy was equivalent for somatic and cognitive/affective symptoms. For diabetes patients, somatic and cognitive/affective symptoms did not correlate with indices of disease control except for number of diabetes-related hospitalizations, where the correlations were equivalent. In participants with diabetes and in controls, somatic and cognitive/affective symptoms were strongly correlated with each other. These findings were not moderated by level of depressive symptoms. Our study suggests that the somatic items on the CES-D do not confound the measurement of depressive symptoms in young people with type 1 diabetes.

Neonatal screening for congenital adrenal hyperplasia.

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) caused by steroid 21-hydroxylase deficiency occurs in 1:16,000-1:20,000 births. If not promptly diagnosed and treated, CAH can cause death in early infancy from shock, hyponatremia and hyperkalemia. Affected girls usually have ambiguous genitalia but boys appear normal; therefore, newborn babies are commonly screened for CAH in the US and many other countries. By identifying babies with severe, salt-wasting CAH before they develop adrenal crises, screening reduces morbidity and mortality, particularly among affected boys. Diagnosis is based on elevated levels of 17-hydroxyprogesterone, the preferred substrate for steroid 21-hydroxylase. Initial testing usually involves dissociation-enhanced lanthanide fluorescence immunoassay that has a low positive predictive value (about 1%), which leads to many follow-up evaluations that have negative results. The positive predictive value might be improved by second-tier screening using DNA-based methods or liquid chromatography followed by tandem mass spectrometry, but these methods are not widely adopted. Cost estimates for such screening range from US$20,000 to $300,000 per life-year saved. In babies with markedly abnormal screen results, levels of serum electrolytes and 17-hydroxyprogesterone should be immediately determined, but the most reliable way to diagnose CAH is measurement of levels of steroid precursors after stimulation with cosyntropin.