Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Aug 15, 2025; 16(8): 110088
Published online Aug 15, 2025. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v16.i8.110088
Psychological predictors of diabetic ketoacidosis in children: Health belief model-based case-control study
Nawal Alissa, Sara Al Zahrani
Nawal Alissa, Department of Community Health Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11433, Saudi Arabia
Sara Al Zahrani, Health Promotion and Education Program, Department of Community Health Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11433, Saudi Arabia
Author contributions: Alissa N and Al Zahrani S contributed equally to the study’s conception, design, data collection, analysis, and manuscript preparation; and all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by the Ongoing Research Funding Program at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, No. ORF-2025-1315.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Prince Sultan Military Medical City, approval No. IRB 1211.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained from all the participants.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Nawal Alissa, Associate Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Prince Turki Ibn Abdulaziz Al Awwal Road, Riyadh 11433, Saudi Arabia. nalissa@ksu.edu.sa
Received: May 29, 2025
Revised: June 18, 2025
Accepted: July 18, 2025
Published online: August 15, 2025
Processing time: 77 Days and 13 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This study explores the psychological factors that contribute to diabetic ketoacidosis in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus, focusing on a population in Saudi Arabia. Using the health belief model, the research examines perceived severity and susceptibility, while introducing perceived understanding of diabetes management as a novel cognitive factor. The findings reveal that a caregiver’s understanding of diabetes management plays a more significant role in preventing diabetic ketoacidosis than risk perception alone. These insights suggest that enhancing comprehension through targeted education could improve adherence and reduce complications, offering a more patient-centered approach to pediatric diabetes care.