The use of insulin pumps in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes is contributing to improvements in blood sugar control, data from three large diabetes registries shows.

The analysis of data from the German/Austrian Prospective Diabetes Follow-up Registry (DPV), the US T1D Exchange (T1DX) and the English/Welsh National Paediatric Diabetes Audit (NPDA) found the use of insulin pumps was associated with lower HbA1c levels across all three registries regardless of disease duration.

When the researchers pooled data from the registries insulin pump use was associated with a mean HbA1c of 8% compared to 8.5% with multiple daily injections.

Despite the presence of many similar clinical characteristics for participants in the three registries, the overall HbA1c level was highest in the NPDA cohort, the study authors led by Dr Jennifer Sherr, Children’s Diabetes Program, Yale School of Medicine reported in Diabetologia.

This difference was not entirely explained by differences in pump use in the NPDA cohort because HbA1c was higher in both injection-treated and pump-treated patients in the NPDA compared with the other two registries, they said.

The difference in HbA1c levels between injection-treated and pump-treated participants was greatest in the NPDA and smallest in the DPV.

The findings primarily reflected the evolution of insulin pump therapy in paediatric care over the past 15 years rather than the current revolution in diabetes technology that is just beginning to be translated into better care for children with type 1 diabetes, the study authors concluded.

“As science and technology move closer to a mechanical solution to the problems of managing children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes, it will be even more important to ensure that our paediatric patients have access to such treatment advancements,” they said.