Abstract
Type 1 diabetes mellitus in childhood is becoming a major concern in health management communities. Furthermore, the increasing number of these patients has a considerable contribution to hospital admissions. This increase in diabetic population is usually associated with an increase in diabetes -related complications. Our aim was to study the prevalence of eye complication in children with type 1 diabetes in Sinnar hospital, central Sudan. It was a descriptive, cross-sectional and facility-based study. It was conducted from 1st January, 2016 to 31th December, 2016. The study investigated the prevalence of ocular problems among children with type 1 diabetes. A total of 50 children (age < 18 years old) attended Sinnar hospital with confirmed diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. They were selected through non -probability convenient sampling method for the study. Out of all investigated children 22 (44%) were males and 28 (56%) were females. Their ages ranged between 1 year and 18 years which makes it a mean age of 9.5 years. A family history of type 1 diabetes was present in only one child (2%), and the most common cause of hospitalization was diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA).Ocular complications were identified were; cataract in 2 patients (4%), refractive error in 8 patients (16%) and noticeably no case of retinopathy. We acknowledge that we could not find more data related to complications of type 1 diabetes in Sudanese children during our study period. We recommend conducting more research and data collection in this category of patients particularly related to the prevalence of eye complications as current research and literature evidence is not enough to understand nature of ocular complications in diabetic children.