STUDY OF NEW ONSET TYPE 1 DIABETES AMONG CHILDREN BEFORE AND AFTER COVID 19 PANDEMIC IN A TERTIARY CARE SETTING

Background: On March 11, 2020 the WHO announced a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Lockdown restrictions, compromised access to medical care and fear of potential exposure to SARS-CoV-2 have forced patients with non-COVID-19 illnesses like type 1 diabetes (T1D) to stay home. This situation lead to delay in T1D diagnosis and treatment resulting in rapid progression to diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and therefore increased risk of complications and death Objective: To compare between frequency and characteristic of new onset of T1D in children before and after pandemic. Methods: This retrospective cohort study comprises 2 datasets- children diagnosed with new-onset T1D and admitted in MVJ medical college prepandemic from 1sep 2017 to 29 feb 2020 and pandemic from 1 march 2020 to 30 august 2022. We compared frequency and characteristics of children with newly diagnosed T1D before and after pandemic. Results: The number of children admitted to MVJ medical college due to new-onset T1D prepandemic were 9 cases which increased to 25 cases during the study period, with most of children had severe DKA during and after COVID-19. Conclusion: Most of children who admitted with T1D had severe DKA at diagnosis during the pandemic in comparison to prepandemic. The main stems for increase case and severity is delayed diagnosis following changes in parental behaviour and healthcare accessibility and another probability would be viral infections triggering T1D and/or DKA during pandemic. However, it needs to evaluate potential effects of SARS-CoV-2 on increased percentage of new onset T1D.