The incidence and causes of acute hospitalizations and emergency room visits in adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a single-centre experience

INTRODUCTION: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is one of the most common chronic diseases in childhood. Because acute glycaemic complications account for most concerns in the management of T1DM in children, special attention during the challenging time of the global COVID-19 pandemic is required to prevent deteriorations resulting in acute hospitalization. AIM OF THE STUDY: is to assess how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the incidence and causes of acute hospitalizations and emergency room visits in adolescents with established type 1 diabetes mellitus, and to characterize the admitted population. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was conducted as a retrospective evaluation of acute hospitalizations of 39 T1DM patients between 15 and 17 years of age in the period 2018–2021. RESULTS: No difference was noted in the incidence of acute hospitalizations and DKA or the biochemical parameters of adolescents with T1DM between the pre-COVID (23 patients in 2018–2019) and COVID period (16 patients in 2020–2021). It is, however, worth underlying that 6/11 (55%) patients hospitalised in 2021 experienced diabetes deterioration as a result of emotional distress – a phenomenon that was not present in the pre-COVID era. After excluding of the hospitalizations due to psychosocial causes, a significant decrease in the number of acute hospitalizations in the COVID period was observed. CONCLUSIONS: We suppose that increased parental supervision during the pandemic might have prevented some of the episodes of severe disease decompensation, but this was masked by the sharp increase in hospitalizations due to emotional distress. Our data confirmed that psycho-emotional status is an important factor in the treatment of T1DM.