Emergent inequity of glycaemic metrics for Māori children with type 1 diabetes is negated by early use of continuous glucose monitoring.

Abstract

Aim: We investigated if continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) within 12 months of being diagnosed modifies the development of glycaemic outcome inequity on the basis of either ethnicity or socio-economic status (SES).

Method: De-identified clinical and SES data from the KIWIDIAB data network were collected 12 months after diagnosis in children under 15 years diagnosed with T1D between 1 October 2020 and 1 October 2021.

Results: There were 206 children with new onset T1D: CGM use was 56.7% for Māori and 77.2% for Europeans. Mean (SD) HbA1c was 62.4 (14.2) mmol/mol at 12 months post diagnosis, but Māori were 9.4mmol/mol higher compared to Europeans (p<0.001). For those without CGM, Māori had an HbA1c 10.8 (95% CI 2.3 to 19.4, p=0.013) mmol/mol higher than Europeans, whereas there was no evidence of a difference between Māori and Europeans using CGM (62.1 [9.3] mmol/mol vs 58.5 [12.4] mmol/mol p=0.53 respectively). Comparing quintiles of SES, HbA1c was 10.8 (95% CI 4.7 to 16.9, p<0.001) mmol/mol higher in the lowest quintile of SES compared to the highest.

Conclusion: These observational data suggest CGM use ameliorates the ethnic disparity in HbA1c at 12 months in new onset T1D.