Research Review: Audit of complications screening for the Paediatric and Adolescent Diabetes service 2024 and 2025

Over the summer I had the pleasure of working with Gilli Lewis and Dr Esko Wiltshire from the diabetes paediatric service in the Capital and Coast region.

Our project’s goal was to update the national paediatric diabetes database with 2024 Capital, Coast, and Hutt clinic data, and then perform a quantitative retrospective audit of the complication screening of these services. There were a total of 220 children and adolescents attending a paediatric diabetes service in the Wellington region, the majority of whom were living with type 1 diabetes (T1D). We found the mean HbA1c levels to be higher in Māori (69.9mmol/mol) and Pacific (63.2mmol/mol), than European (58.3mmol/mol) in T1D patients. Across the 220 individuals, 69.2% had a blood pressure recorded, 54.8% had a lipid panel completed, and 47.8% of T1D who met ISPAD screening guidelines had an albumin creatinine ratio in their regional laboratory records.

These rates were all higher in the Capital and Coast paediatric diabetes service than the Hutt Valley paediatric diabetes service. Therefore, this study demonstrated an overview of diabetes care in the paediatric Wellington population, an overview of complication screening in these services, as well as the inequities affecting Māori and Pacific populations, and the need for ongoing benchmarking of data and complication screening auditing, particularly in the Hutt paediatric diabetes service.

A personal highlight for me during this project was being involved in research during medical school. This was an incredible opportunity that helped me develop important skills such as data collection, analysis and reporting which are important skills that I hope to carry into future research.

Overall, I am grateful to the NZSSD and DNZRF for funding this project and making it possible.