Effects of inpatient rehabilitation on children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes

The Effects of inpatient rehabilitation on children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes were studied based on the diabetes patient course documentation (DPV-Wiss) database. Data from 1282 patients who had completed inpatient rehabilitation for the first time between 1996 and 2010 and for whom complete documentation was available was used. Differences were tested using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and linear regression models. At follow-up (mean 7.3 months after rehabilitation) there were significant changes with more frequent injections, use of insulin analogues, insulin pump treatment (19.9 % vs. 11.6 %, p < 0.0001), more frequent blood glucose measurement, less severe hypoglycemia and improvement in HbA(1c) (8.06 % vs. 8.15 %, p = 0.02) especially in patients with high initial HbA(1c) levels. Patients with high body mass index standard deviation scores (BMI-SDS) showed reduction in body weight. A reduction of days of diabetes-related illness, absence from school and in acute care hospitals as well as a reduction of visits to the diabetes outpatient clinic also showed improvement. Inpatient rehabilitation led to an intensification of treatment and an improvement of self care management, metabolic control and participation results in the following year of treatment.