Schools, providers are connecting to support families as juvenile diabetes cases increase
Apr. 30—SUPERIOR — School nurses in the Superior School District took part in a Type 1 diabetes troubleshooting session April 11 with Dr. Kannan Kasturi, a pediatric endocrinologist with Essentia Health.
Although Essentia offers annual educational sessions for the region's school nurses on the topic, this marked the first time Kasturi went directly to them.
"We just think it's great that they are willing to do that, because taking the time out of their busy schedule to meet school districts at their place instead of requesting people to go to trainings that are outside of work time, outside of pay ... sometimes that's a challenge to do," said Jennifer Marsh, a school nurse at Superior Middle School.
It offered a chance to focus on individual students and their immediate issues.
"This is probably one of the few times they're seeing us in person, so it gives them a face to put to a picture on all those signed diabetes school plans. They know who was doing that, and it gives them a fantastic opportunity to deal with a single patient," Kasturi said.
It is a complicated disease.
"With Type 1 diabetes, children have to take an insulin shot, whether it be through an injection or through an insulin pump, every single time they put food in their mouth. So every time they eat, they have to calculate the amount of carbohydrates in that food," Kasturi said, and calculate an insulin dose.
"Everything in your life affects your blood sugar — from food choices to sleep to stress, illness, everything affects your blood sugars," Marsh said.
School nurses serve as the bridge between student families and their health providers.
"Diabetic management is very complex, but we are happy to have people being the eyes in the office here — really for the parents and kind of in between the parents and the provider's office — to help manage their diabetes best and most appropriately," Marsh said.
Kasturi said he plans to travel to several local school districts to speak with nurses. It helps both sides.
"They get a lot of benefits from this, we get a lot of benefits from this. We learn how to include ourselves, we learn from feedback," the pediatric endocrinologist said.
The Superior school nurses, for instance, asked if they could automatically receive updated treatment plans from the health care provider.
Marsh said both the regional and individual school district sessions were helpful.
"Knowledge is power," she said.
Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune disease that focuses on children. The most common age of diagnosis is between 8 and 13, Kasturi said, although it can affect children as young as 2. It comprises 5-10% of all diabetes cases, but it's on the rise.
A September study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
showed that rates of new-onset Type 2 diabetes climbed 62% and Type 1 diabetes increased 17% nationwide in youth under age 20 after the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The disease is typically triggered by the body's response to viral infection, Kasturi said. It takes three to four years between the time the immune response starts to complete destruction of the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. The country is currently at the three- to four-year mark from the peak of COVID-19.
"And now we are noticing a lot of increase in the number of cases," Kasturi said.
Marsh started working at Superior Middle School three and a half years ago. She has seen that increase firsthand.
"We have four Type 1 diabetics here and three of the four have been newly diagnosed since they entered the middle school. So I would say three out of the four that we have have been (diagnosed) within the three years that I started here," she said.
The disease has a special connection to the Northland region. Scandinavian countries like Norway and Sweden have the highest incidence of diabetes.
"Our area having such a close connection with those genes puts us at relatively higher risk than the rest of the country," Kasturi said.
An upcoming walk to raise money for Type 1 diabetes research,
the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Community One Walk
, will take place May 18 at Malosky Stadium on the University of Minnesota-Duluth campus. Doors open at 9 a.m. and the 5K walk begins at 10 a.m. A shorter 1-mile walk is also available. There will be music, games, snacks, a photo station and other activities.
This is the third annual event in Duluth.
One of the biggest benefits it brings to the community is awareness, Kasturi said.
This year, participants can learn about TrialNet, which offers a free test that screens for antibodies in the blood associated with prediabetes.
Siblings and other close relatives of people with Type 1 diabetes are encouraged to get the screening, which could help them detect the disease in time to slow it down. A new drug has been approved by the FDA that slows the progression into full-blown Type 1 diabetes for up to three years, Kasturi said.
"If they are positive, then we can offer them this treatment. And for a kid who is 5 years old, 5 to 8 (years) is a huge difference between maturity and other things, so that makes a big impact," Kasturi said.
The screening, which involves a small blood draw, will be available at the walk. Visit t
for more information, to set up a local blood draw or to receive a home finger stick test kit.
