Authors:
O'Grady MJ, Delaney J, Jones TW, Davis EA
Authors notes:
Pediatric Diabetes. 2013;14(1):13-17
Keywords:
Type 1 diabetes, Diabetic ketoacidosis, Hypoglycaemia, Mortality, Dead-in-bed
Abstract:
There are no type 1 diabetes (T1DM) mortality data on Australian children and limited contemporary data on their international counterparts.
Fatalities in children and adolescents (1-17 yr) with T1DM were identified from the Western Australia Children's Diabetes Database between 1987-2011.
Seventeen thousand four hundred and fifty-three patient-years of diabetes data were analysed and 13 deaths were confirmed (six male).
The overall standardised mortality ratio was 3.1 and was highest in the 10-14 yr age group, at 4.6.
Median age at death was 16.4 yr, and median haemoglobin A1c at death was 10.5%.
Cause of death was attributed to diabetes in 10 (77%) cases.
Two patients were found 'dead-in-bed'.
All diabetes-related deaths in subjects with known T1DM occurred outside the hospital setting.