تأثير مرض السكري النوع الأول على الوظائف التنفيذية لدى عينة من المراهقين القطريين

Abstract EN

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of type I diabetes on the executive functions of Qatari adolescents.

Thirty adolescents from Qatari schools and their parents (n =30) have volunteered for the study.

We assigned adolescents purposively to two groups, diabetics (n = 15) and healthy controls (n = 15) based on their medical history.

Then we compared the performance of the two groups on a number of executive functions; namely inhibition “Stroop Test”, planning “the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test”, short-term memory and working memory “WISC-IV Digit Span Task”, and flexible thinking “the Color Trails Test”.

The findings of the study showed statistical differences in short-term memory, working memory, some components of inhibition and flexible thinking with Diabetics scoring significantly lower than healthy controls.

We observed no statistical differences between the two groups in planning.

Furthermore, parents’ rating of their child executive functions using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF Parent Form) show statistical differences between the rating of parents of diabetic children and parents of healthy controls, with parents of diabetics rating their children’s executive functions significantly lower suggesting a heightened perception of hindered executive functions in diabetic adolescents.