Poor cognitive task performance of insulin-dependent diabetic children (6-12 years) in India

Abstract

Cognitive function was assessed in 22 diabetic and 39 healthy children, all in the age group of 6-12 years. Wechsler's coding, digit span test and Raven's colored progressive matrices were included in the battery of tests. The diabetic children underscored on all these tasks compared to the healthy children. The raw scores (mean +/- S.D.), of the diabetic and healthy children were: Wechsler's coding: 17.4 +/- 6.48, 37.4 +/- 9.33; digit span: 22.0 +/- 8.8, 44.1 +/- 7.67 and on Raven's A+AB+B: 16.2 +/- 3.5. 24.1 +/- 6.26; P < 0.001 in each instance, respectively. Duration of diabetes did not correlate with any of the test scores. No significant differences were noted between the early onset (IDDM starting before the age of 5 years) and late onset (IDDM starting after 5 years) diabetic children in their performance. We attribute the very low scores in our diabetic children to the psycho-social factors in addition to the metabolic control.

Conclusions: (1) specific cognitive dysfunction is present in children with IDDM compared to the healthy children; (2) duration of diabetes did not correlate with cognitive function scores; (3) IDDM manifesting after the age of 5 years also had hitherto unknown detrimental effects on the cognitive process.