Introduction: Camp Midicha is an American Diabetes Association summer camp for children aged 8-17 with type 1 diabetes mellitus located in Fenton, Michigan. Blood glucose (BG) levels of campers are closely monitored so that hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia can be treated and ideally prevented. Hyperglycemia is a particular concern for campers who use insulin pumps because of an increased risk for ketoacidosis. It has been previously observed that campers who disconnect their pumps for swimming have higher BG levels later in the day. Swimming occurs for approximately 1.5 hours between lunch and dinner for all campers daily. This study aims to compare trends in BG for campers who wear insulin pumps that are removed prior to afternoon swimming versus those who do not.
Methods: This study was conducted as a retrospective review of the camp’s medical records. Trends in BG at lunch and dinner were compared between campers who A) wear a removable insulin pump and B) wear a non-removable pump or utilize insulin injections. This study included all campers at Camp Midicha from 2017 and 2018, encompassing 862 campers. Multivariate linear regression was used to compare the two groups.
Results: The average change in BG from lunch to dinner was 38.13 mg/dL for campers who removed their insulin pumps (174.62 to 212.75 mg/dL) and 16.42 mg/dL for campers who did not (177.14 to 193.59 mg/dL). The difference in BG change between the groups was 21.68 mg/dL (P < 0.0001) with variance between the different days analyzed.
Conclusion: This study showed a significant difference in the change in BG from lunch to dinner between the two groups despite insulin pumps being disconnected for only 1.5 hours. While the magnitude of this difference may not necessitate follow-up studies to assess potential interventions, further analysis to evaluate differences in BG change between days could be valuable for insulin dosing at future camps.
M. Randall: None. B.M. Degnan: None.
