Abstract

Background: Iraq has been exposed to many wars and widespread violence during recent years. These lead to reactions to stressful events, especially depressive disorder, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).Objective: This study was carried out in order to explore the effect of violence on school achievement and metabolic control of type 1 diabetic children and adolescents in AL-Sader city/Baghdad.Methods: A total of one hundred thirty type 1 diabetic children and adolescents were selected randomly from AL-Sader city/Baghdad for the period of ten months. Each participant was interviewed, and a questionnaire was filled out. It contains three parts. First part was the Iraqi version of the Harvard Traumatic Questionnaire (HTQ) for estimating the exposure to traumatic events (part IV), the second part was the School Performance Questionnaire about the school achievement, and the third part was a questionnaire about metabolic control of blood glucose level.Chi-square and Yate’s correction tests were used to examine the association between the variables, and a P-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: The rate of PTSD was 46.9%. There was no significant effect of age and gender on the rate of PTSD. It had a negative impact on school achievement and metabolic control of blood glucose levels. Conclusion: PTSD is highly prevalent. It had a negative impact on school achievement. Poor blood glucose control was highly prevalent, and PTSD had a negative role in controlling metabolism

Keywords

Exposure to Trauma, Diabetic Children, Adolescents, Atopy and Asthma