Impaired Metabolic Control and Socio-Demographic Status in Immigrant Children at Onset of Type 1 Diabetes.

AimThe aim of the present study was to compare clinical and socio-demographic conditions at the onset of Type1 diabetes in children born to immigrant families and children born to Swedish families, and to assess whether those conditions had an impact on metabolic status.Methods and designThis was an observational nationwide population-based matched cohort study on prospectively recorded registry data of all children with diabetes in Sweden and their families during 2000-2010. Out of a total of 13415 children from the Swedish Childhood Diabetes Registry (SWEDIABKIDS), 879 children born to immigrant parents were collected. To these we added 2627 children with Swedish-born parents, matched for gender, age and year of onset of Type1 diabetes.ResultsThe proportion of low capillary pH (<7.30) at onset was higher in the immigrant cohort [25.8% vs. 16.4% in the Swedish cohort (P<0.001)]. HbA(1c) was also higher [95mmol/mol (10.8%) vs. 88mmol/mol (10.2%), respectively (P<0.001)]. In a logistic regression model with low pH as the dependent variable, we were unable to reveal any significant association to socio-demographic factors, but the odds ratio for HbA(1c) was 0.983 (95%CI 0.976-0.991) and for plasma glucose was 0.953 (95%CI 0.933-0.973).ConclusionChildren born to immigrant parents have lower capillary pH and higher HbA(1c) at diabetes onset. Immigrant families harbour lower socio-demographic living conditions, but this fact does not seem to influence the inferior metabolic condition at diabetes onset.