The Turkish Journal of Pediatrics
2012 , Vol 54 , Num 4
Relationship between metabolic control and neurocognitive functions in children diagnosed with type I diabetes mellitus before and after 5 years of age
1Department of Pediatric Endocrinology, Faculty of Medicine and 2Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences,
Çukurova University, Adana, Turkey. E-mail: nkiris@cu.edu.tr
We aimed to investigate the effects of age onset of diabetes, glycemic control
and frequency of hypoglycemia on neurocognitive functions in type I diabetic
children. Sixty type I diabetic children with diagnosis before (Group 1) or after
(Group 2) five years of age and 40 healthy children were tested. Wechsler
Intelligence Scale for Children Revised (WISC-R), Stroop Test, and Visual
Auditory Digit Span Test Form B were applied to all children in the two groups.
Neurocognitive functions such as visual perception, short-term memory and
selective attention were seen to be negatively affected at a significant level.
Group 1 patients with poor glycemic control were found to have significant
dysfunction in verbal, performance and general intelligence. Neurocognitive
functions were negatively affected by early onset of diagnosis, poor glycemic
control and frequent hypoglycemia in children with type I diabetes mellitus.
We suggest that negative effects on neurocognitive functions in type I diabetes
should be considered in the follow-up of these patients.
Keywords :
children, type 1 diabetes mellitus, neurocognitive functions, frequency of
hypoglycemia.