A child with diabetes in school and kindergarten: results of the all-russian sociological study “ROSTOK-2023”

Abstract

Introduction. Type 1 diabetes in children creates difficulties and requires certain conditions for control while attending school/ kindergarten, while children should receive education without any restrictions.Aim. To identify problems and assess the needs of children with type 1 diabetes mellitus and their parents during their stay in preschool and general education organizations.Materials and methods. A sociological online survey of 684 parents of children with diabetes was conducted in September- October 2023 in 8 federal districts of Russia. The electronic questionnaire contained 117 questions on 9 main blocks of studying the problems of children staying in schools/kindergartens.Results. The age of children is from 2 to 18 years (median – 9.9 years); gender of children: female – 50.9%, male – 49.1%; diabetes experience – from 1 month. up to 15 years (median – 3.6 years). Parents consider the main problems to be difficulties with organizing meals (54.7%), administering insulin (52.8%), controlling glycemia (44.9%), their own fear (41.2%), and mistrust of teachers (20.8%) and nurses (11.1%), administrative barriers (29.4%). Teachers do not have sufficient knowledge about diabetes in children (78.5%), teaching aids (53.0%), regulations on their responsibilities when accompanying children (46.0%), 54.8% of them are afraid, 87.9% cannot help a child in an emergency. Parents are concerned about the lack of nurses (80.1%) and a separate room for self-monitoring (47.7%) at school. According to parents, educational organizations need awareness-raising work (85.8%) and support from an assistant/tutor (56.5%) for children with diabetes.Conclusion. It is possible to solve the identified problems through the cooperation of teachers, parents and children, endocrinologists, psychologists, social workers and government authorities who can remove barriers and create conditions for a comfortable stay for children with diabetes in educational organizations.