National Paediatric Diabetes Audit Admissions report (NPDA)

The National Paediatric Diabetes Audit (NPDA) has published a Report on hospital admissions of children and young people with diabetes, 2015-2020. Based on 38,095 diabetes related admissions between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2020, it found that all cause admission rates remained constant in England and Wales, despite a downward trend in national HbA1c from 2015/16 to 2019/20. However, there was considerable regional variability. The report also found that rates of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) at diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes increased over five years. Other key findings include:

• Lower rates of admission with DKA, not at diagnosis, were associated with lower HbA1c and use of real time continuous glucose monitoring (rtCGM) in children and young people with Type 1 diabetes, and
• Children and young people with Type 1 diabetes were more likely to be admitted for diabetes related reasons if they were female, of Black ethnicity, or were living in more deprived areas, with longer duration of diabetes associated with higher risk of hypoglycaemia and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) admission not at diagnosis.

Stating that every emergency hospital admission for children and young people with diabetes is potentially avoidable, the report contains a number of recommendations. These include calling for training and the provision of 24-hour expert advice for families and healthcare professionals. It also recommends that all children and young people with Type 1 diabetes should be able to access a choice of diabetes­ related technologies appropriate to their individual needs, with families being made aware of the potential differences in risk of admission with different modalities of insulin delivery and blood glucose monitoring. Please note that the original upload of this file (accessible 13^th July) was replaced on the 14^th July with a corrected sentence reading “~15% of all children and young people with an HbA1c >80mmol/mol had a DKA admission within each audit year and less than 2% of those with an HbA1c < 48mmol/mol were admitted with DKA. The previous version read ‘less than 2% of those with an HbA1c >48mmol/mol were admitted with DKA Read the full report: You can read the report by clicking on the link below. Stay up-to-date: For notifications of future reports from HQIP, sign up to our mailing list.