Prevalence of depressive symptoms in school aged children with type 1 diabetes - a questionnaire study

Aim. Current studies show that diabetic patients are at greater risk of developing psychiatric disorders than general population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of depressive symptoms in school-aged children with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Methods. The study involved 477 children with T1D, with mean age of 13.1 +/- 2.7 years and mean diabetes duration of 5.0 +/- 3.5 years, treated for at least one year. Patients were asked to fill out the Polish version of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and Quality of Life Questionnaire. Demographic data such as height, weight, diabetes duration, daily insulin dose (TDD) was also collected. Results. 17% (81/477) of all participants presented depressive symptoms (CDI >= 13 scores), 20.9% of them were children >= 12 years of age, and 8.1% of them were children at the age of <= 12 years, p = 0.0005. Participants with CDI scores of 13 or higher were older (p = 0.002), had higher BMI (p = 0.029), TDD (p = 0.026) and lower quality of life (p < 0.0001) in comparison with children who scored < 13. There was no difference in glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) values between groups with and without depressive symptoms (p = 0.249). However, there is a correlation between HbA1c value and CDI score (r = 0.16; p = 0.0002). Conclusions. Depressive symptoms were observed in 1 out of 12 T1D children in a primary school and in 1 out of 5 teenagers. Depressive symptoms may affect metabolic control and quality of life. Therefore, early detection and treatment of depressive symptoms in T1D school children is needed.