WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Esraa Azzam Sulaiman Altaan*, Nashwan Nadhim Jaro and Asmaa Bakr Dhannoon

ABSTRACT

Background: Insulin dependent diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that is defined by the body's inability to produce enough insulin due to the autoimmune destruction of the pancreatic β cells. Nutritional therapy is still important factor for diabetic management, even with the advancements in medical science and technology. Children and Adolescents with type 1 diabetes should follow the same dietary guidelines for a healthy lifestyle as their peers without the disease; the only difference that separates them is the requirement for insulin therapy. Objectives: Is to evaluate the effect of carbohydrate counting among children and adolescent with insulin dependent diabetes on their glycemic management. Methods: The study is an observational, descriptive, case series study. It was conducted between the 20th of September 2023 to the end of February 2025 at investigators private clinics in Mosul city. The questionnaire was composed from two tools. The first tool is adolescent’s assessment sheet. The second Tool evaluates seven domains: four domains for carbohydrate detection and three domains for insulin dosage. Results: The study includes 120 child and adolescent with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. The mean age ± standard deviation of the study participants is 14.53 ± 0.83 years. Male: Female ratio was 0.739. It’s evident that the age group of 10-14 years was the most prevalent age group among 66 (55%) patients. Moreover; 51 (42.5%) patients were males and 69 (57.5%) were females. Furthermore; 91 (75.83%) patients reported positive family history of diabetes mellitus. The mean duration of diabetes among the study participants was 6.129 ± 1.248 years. Almost half of the study patients had hyperglycemia at time of diagnosis and another approximately half reported hospitalization mostly due to diabetes ketoacidosis. Only 10% of the study participant consult dietitian. Mild negative and not significant correlation was founded between all of the glycemic control parameters (pre and post prandial blood glucose, random blood sugar and glycated hemoglobin) and total PCQ score. Conclusion: The findings of this study conclude that children and adolescents with insulin dependent diabetes had a low level of recognition with regard to the carbohydrate counting and that there was a negative but non-significant correlation between their total PCQ score and their glycemic control.