Children's Insulin Regime, Frequency of Blood Glucose Monitoring and Hypoglycemia Problems Reported by Parents in a Population Based Study

Management of diabetes in children may represent an extra burden and daily challenges for families. In addition to normal caring parents have to handle the disease either for or together with the child 24 hours a day. The purpose of this study was to describe the medical treatment, blood glucose monitoring, perceived burden and strain and fear of hypoglycemia.Reported data showed that 90% of the children were treated with an intensive insulin regime (n=112), 46% were on multiple injections, 44% on insulin pump therapy, 10% on 1-3 injections per day. The parents reported high frequency of blood glucose monitoring, 55% measured 4-6 times per day and 32% measured 7 or more times per day (n=113). More than ¼ of the families were awake more than once a week monitoring blood glucose during the night, with 4% monitoring nearly every night (n=114). In this study 33.0% of the fathers (n=97) and 25% of the mothers (n=102) reported hypoglycaemia as a serious problem for their children.