The impact of educational camp on glycemic control of Rwandan type 1 diabetes youth

In Rwanda, the prevalence of known type 1 diabetes mellitus in seven districts of the country is 16.4 per 100,000 in young adults under 25 years old. The objective of this study was to compare the glycemic control of type 1 diabetes youth before and after the diabetes camp in Rwanda. A quasi experimental design using a longitudinal approach to compare the glycemic control before and after camp was used; 97 type 1 diabetes youth of both sexes, average age of 21 years were assigned into 8 groups and every group attended 5 days of diabetes education at the camp. Medical records about glycated hemoglobin levels before and 3 months after the camp were extracted from the database of Rwanda Diabetes Association and were analyzed to identify the impact of the educational camp. The mean difference between the glycemic control before and 3 months after the camp revealed a statistically significant decrease of 2.1% HbA1c (P-value = 0.02). As conclusion, this study found that diabetes educational camp is an effective strategy to improve Rwandan type 1 diabetes youth’s glycemic control. ________________________________________________________________________Key words: Rwanda, type 1 diabetes, youth, camp, glycemic control