Background: Assessing the degree of involvement of caregivers for children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) in their diabetes care, differences in the degree of involvement based on the method of insulin administration (multiple daily injections: MDI/continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion: CSII), and its effect on glycemic control.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study with T1DM patients, ages 6-13 years using a six question survey derived from the Diabetes Family Responsibility Questionnaire (DFRQ). All caregivers (n=140) and participants between ages 11 and 13 (n=60) completed the survey.
Results: Significant differences between MDI and CSII caregiver responses were found for responsibility for giving insulin boluses, as well as for rotation of infusion/injection sites (p<0.001 and p=0.03, respectively). A sub-analysis of caregiver responses for caregiver versus child responsibility for giving infusion boluses (excluding shared responsibility) showed that 36% of children in the CSII group had primary responsibility for giving insulin boluses, compared to 17% in the MDI group (p<0.001). The median agreement for all questions combined between participants and caregivers for ages 11-13 (n=60 pairs) was "poor" (κ=0.18). No significant effect of parental involvement on last 2-year average HbA1C was found for CSII or MDI groups (p>0.20).
Conclusions: Caregiver reported diabetes care responsibility (mostly parent, mostly child, shared between parent and child) varies for certain aspects of diabetes related care for children ages 6-13, depending upon the mode of insulin administration. Based on the reported degree of parental collaboration, HbA1C did not differ significantly. However, long-term effects are yet to be determined in longitudinal studies.