Background: Disparities in outcomes for children with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) are associated with poverty and race. However, little is known regarding the impact of systemic racism.

Objective: This aim of this study is to determine if neighborhood concentrated disadvantage index (NCDI) or Childhood Opportunity Index (COI) are associated with HbA1c and diabetes ketoacidosis (DKA) in children ≤ 18 years of age with type 1 diabetes.

Methods: The retrospective secondary data analysis included data from children ≤ 18 years of age with a diagnosis of T1DM for ≥ 6 months seen in 2017 who reside in Kentucky (n=675) . NCDI scores were calculated based on the NIH PhenX Toolkit protocol. The tool was developed from a principal components analysis of six variables at the census tract level. COI was obtained from diversitydatakids.org. Univariate analyses were performed using Kruskal-Wallis test or Pearson’s correlation. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to to evaluate HbA1C and multivariate Poisson model was used for DKA.

Results: Prior to controlling for age, race, and insurance type, NCDI (p<0.001) and COI (p< 0.001) were significant predictors for HbA1c. For every 1 unit increase in COI, the predicted value of AIc level decreased by 8.66 (p=0.0004) . NCDI and COI were not significant when controlling for age, race, and insurance. NCDI and COI were not significant predictors of DKA episodes.

Conclusions: This study identified NCDI and COI as predictors of HbA1c in children and adolescents with T1DM only in univariate analysis. While NCDI and COI have been shown to correlate with structural racism, these findings suggest that more research is needed in larger and more diverse samples to disentangle the complex relationships among race, racism, and poverty. Understanding the mechanisms through which racism impacts outcomes for children with T1DM is essential to improving health equity.

Disclosure

M.B.Coriell: None. K.S.Jawad: None. Y.B.Feygin: None. S.Watson: None. M.D.Stevenson: None. B.A.Wattles: Research Support; Merck & Co., Inc. V.F.Jones: None. J.Porter: None. D.W.Davis: None.

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