Effectiveness of ketoacidosis prevention campaigns at diagnosis of type 1 diabetes in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Aim: To determine if diabetes awareness campaigns are an effective intervention to reduce diabetes ketoacidosis at diagnosis of type 1 diabetes in children and youth. Methods: Search strategies included PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL and WOS electronic databases, hand search of select journals and a grey literature search “Google” search to include all relevant information. Studies included community-based interventions focused on children younger than 18 years old. The difference in the frequency of DKA was measured in two separate comparisons; before and after perform awareness campaigns in the same area, and between areas with and without intervention campaigns. Results: Of 1136 records identified, 14 studies were eligible for the analysis. The first group of 12 studies measured DKA at diagnosis, before (n = 6548 individuals) and after (n = 4931 individuals) the awareness campaigns. The pooled difference was a reduction of 7.20% (95%CI: 0.99–13.41). The second group of four studies measured the difference in an area with no intervention (n = 338 individuals) and in an area with an awareness campaign (n = 187 individuals). The pooled difference in DKA was 35.71% (95%CI: 5.81–65.61). Conclusions: This review demonstrated that DKA awareness campaigns are effective to reduce DKA among children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes and the core components that explain why these campaigns are effective. Back to top.