NPDA report published

The new 2017-18 National Paediatric Diabetes Audit (NPDA) report shows continued improvement in some aspects of diabetes care, but also highlights persistent variability in outcomes across England and Wales: more work is required to reduce inequality.

There has been marked improvement in the care of children and young people being treated in paediatric diabetes units (PDUs) across England and Wales over the last 8 years, reveals a new audit.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has today published the latest National Paediatric Diabetes Audit (NPDA) report which shows more children and young people with Type 1 diabetes have better overall control of the condition than nearly a decade ago. It also shows more are receiving the recommended health checks required to monitor the disease. The NPDA 2017-18 report reveals:

  • In 2017-18, over 85% of recommended health checks for young people with Type 1 diabetes were provided, with nearly half receiving all seven key NICE recommended checks.
  • However, national average HbA1c remained stable at 64.0 mmol/mol between 2016-17 and 2017-18.

More work is still needed in other areas, specifically in relation to reducing inequality in outcomes. The audit shows that:

  • Those living in more deprived areas were found to have a higher risk of albuminuria, obesity, needing additional psychological support, and higher HbA1c levels.
  • The gap between insulin pump usage amongst children and young people with Type 1 diabetes living in the most and least deprived areas has widened with time, from 18.4% versus 26.3% in 2014-15, to 29.0% versus 41.1%, in 2017-18, respectively.

The NPDA analyses data provided by healthcare professionals working in PDUs who are diagnosing and treating children and young people with diabetes mellitus in England and Wales. The 2017-18 report looks at the number of units recording health checks and outcomes for children and young people with diabetes during the period from 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018.

The NPDA has been reporting for 15 years and provides an essential baseline for measuring PDU, regional, clinical commissioning group (England) / health board (Wales) and national performance, and enables benchmarking of year on year progress.

The NPDA strongly recommends the sharing of best practice and hopes that PDUs and regional networks will use the interactive PDU and network level outputs within the NPDA Results Online reporting tool to identify opportunities to collaborate and learn from each other.

Read the NPDA 2017-18 report on our website