Introduction:
Some recent research has shown an increased prevalence of epilepsy and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) compared with the general population. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and clinical characteristics of the above-mentioned and other neurological disorders among children with T1D.

Material and methods:
The study included youths aged 1–16 with T1D from a single paediatric diabetes centre in Central Poland. Children with both T1D and neurological/neurodevelopmental diagnoses were identified by a retrospective medical records review of all patients. The prevalence was compared to the general prevalence among Polish children based on the official electronic databases.

Results:
The study comprised 669 children with T1D, mean age 11.23 ±3.43 years. Twenty nine (4.3%) had at least one neurological disorder, mostly epilepsy (12, 1.8%) and ASD (8, 1.2%). Nine participants had ≥ 1 neurological diagnosis. The prevalence of ASD among children with T1D was similar to the overall population patients aged ≤ 16 in Poland: 1.2% vs. 1.15% (OR = 1.044, 95% CI: 0.52–2.096, p = 0.9032), but it was higher for epilepsy: 1.8% vs. 1.02% (OR = 2.0112, 95% CI: 0.8427–4.7999, p = 0.11). Metabolic control in children with ASD was similar to those with T1D only, but significantly worse for other neurological disorders, especially epilepsy (HbA1c 7.9 ±1.6% vs. 7.2 ±1.0%, p = 0.0014 and 7.6 ±1.0% vs. 7.2 ±1.0%, p = 0.0029, respectively).

Conclusions:
In our study there is a small, but important group of individuals with T1D and neurological disorders comprising mostly boys. This group does not differ significantly from their peers with T1D only in terms of age or diabetes onset but has different immunological patterns and worse metabolic control.