Type 1 Diabetes May Not Impair School Performance in Kids

Type 1 and LADA Parents of Children with Type 1 Diabetes
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Having type 1 diabetes per se may not affect school performance among children but glycemic control could, a Danish study suggests.

“In this population-based cohort study, there was no statistically significant difference in pooled reading and math test scores between children with and without diabetes,” note Niels Skipper, PhD, of the Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Denmark, and colleagues, in their article published online February 5 in JAMA.

The study involved more than 600,000 Danish schoolchildren and compared 2000 kids with type 1 diabetes to those without. Even after adjusting for socioeconomic status, there were no significant differences overall in standardized test scores between the groups.

However, among the children with diabetes, those with lower HbA1c levels performed better on the tests. And interestingly, children with HbA1c levels below 7.5% actually scored slightly better than those without diabetes.

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I bet the kids that had under 7.5% ate better to control their blood sugar levels than the non diabetic kids! Hence better nutrition, better grades!

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I was dx in 1959, so urine tested for 22 yrs. My control was not at all good. My doctor just wanted the test to turn blue once a day showing that at that moment I tested negative for sugar. One shot a day, no food plan. I did well in school in accelerated classes.

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I was dx in 1962, followed the exchange diet, one shot a day, very little urine testing, yet I did very well in school. Type 1 Diabetes has never held me back.

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