Assessment of Selected Aspects of the Quality of Life of Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus in Poland

Justyna Grudziąż-Sękowska, Monika Zamarlik and Kuba Sękowski
Additional contact information
Justyna Grudziąż-Sękowska: Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, School of Public Health, 01-813 Warsaw, Poland
Monika Zamarlik: Faculty of Health Sciences, Institute of Public Health, Jagiellonian University, 31-007 Kraków, Poland
Kuba Sękowski: Doctoral School, Law College, Kozminski University, 03-301 Warsaw, Poland

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 4, 1-13

Abstract: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) is, next to obesity and asthma, the most common chronic disease in children in Poland. T1D is not only a medical challenge, but it also affects all areas of a sick child’s life and family functionality. New forms of therapy facilitate the daily management of the disease, but their availability is limited and partly dependent on socioeconomic status. This study aimed to assess the incidence and interrelationships between the child’s health condition and the applied therapy model, and selected aspects of the child’s family functionality and access to health and care services. The survey involved 206 child and youth caregivers with T1D who are members of Facebook support groups. The analysis of the obtained results revealed the existence of links between family income level and the type of insulin therapy applied. Children from families with a better financial situation (subjective and objective) were more likely to have additional medical consultations and make more frequent control visits. In families with a higher level of income, the T1D-induced restriction of child activity was less frequent. Living outside of urban centers was associated with a reduced availability of care or educational facilities adapted to take care of a child with T1D. No statistically significant correlations were observed between demographic and economic factors and the child’s health status expressed by the occurrence of complications. The incidence of the latter, however, affected the child’s family situation.

Keywords: children; diabetes mellitus; type 1; health status disparities; social inequalities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/4/2107/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/4/2107/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:4:p:2107-:d:503431

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().