Survival of type 1 diabetes mellitus patients on disease control programme

Abstract

Survival among children diagnosed with T1DM in SSA has been estimated to be very poor with average duration of survival at 1 year. With care and increasing availability of insulin through philanthropic projects like the Changing Diabetes in Children (CDiC), there is improved survival of children and adolescents with T1DM in the low and medium income countries (LMICS). We aimed to investigate the survival rates of patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) on a national programme at specialized T1DM clinics. Furthermore, the study sought to determine the associated factors for patients with T1DM to stay on the programme. The median duration for registered patients with T1DM on the programme was 99 ($\mu ≔$ 600, Min—Max $≔$ 1—16864) days. Findings show that the hemoglobin A1C (HbA1c) poor control, body mass index (BMI), hypertension, hospital and residence were significantly associated with time in days to dropout from the programme. Of these predictors, being underweight and the centre of registration (Nsambya Hospital) had poor T1DM prognostics, while residing in the central region and being at least 15 years were associated with better T1DM control and management, hence a greater likelihood to stay on the T1DM programme.