Final height of children with type 1 diabetes: the effects of age at diagnosis, metabolic control, and parental height.

Normal growth is one of the major goals in the treatment of children with type 1 diabetes. We prospectively monitored the linear growth and metabolic control of 44 children (13 boys) with type 1 diabetes from the time of diagnosis to the attainment of adult height and analyzed the relationship between the height and the age at diagnosis, metabolic control, and genetic target height. At diagnosis, girls at puberty were taller (height in standard deviation score: 0.60 +/- 0.94, p = 0.022), while boys (-0.03 +/- 0.67) and prepubertal girls (0.24 +/- 0.86) were similar to the age-controlled children. During the following years, they lost height compared to their height at diagnosis (p = 0.009), but they still attained an average final height (-0.13 +/- 0.66 in boys, -0.05 +/- 0.86 in girls) correlated with their height at diagnosis (r = 0.37, p = 0.014), as well as their genetic target height (r = 0.78, p < 0.005). The final height as well as the reduction in height was not linearly correlated with the age at diagnosis. The mean HbA1c level of the 44 children was 10.33 +/- 1.74%, boys had better control compared with girls (mean HbA1c 9.45 +/- 1.28 v.s. 10.71 +/- 1.78%, p = 0.013). The final height or the reduction in height was not linearly correlated with the mean HbA1c level.