Funding outcome

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is a health condition that usually starts in childhood, where the body's immune system attacks parts of the pancreas. People with this condition need to take insulin (a medication) for their entire life to stay healthy. When children become teenagers, they need to learn how to take care of their diabetes by themselves, instead of relying on their caregivers. Self-Management Education (SME) is a strategy health professionals use to support persons in learning how to care for this illness. The education includes checking their blood sugar, figuring out how much food they are going to eat and therefore how much insulin they need, and giving themselves insulin as shots or via a pump. Since teenagers are at an age where they want to be more independent, they often want to manage their diabetes their own way. Teenagers might think about their diabetes differently from how their doctors or parents do. They might also have their own ideas about what it means to successfully manage their condition. Their friends, family, and social life can affect how ready they are to handle their diabetes on their own. However, most diabetes education focuses on preventing health problems and may not fully consider these other factors. Since every teenager's life is different, using the same teaching method for everyone does not work well. We need to understand the difference between what teenagers think is important in managing their diabetes and what their parents and doctors think is important. Our project will find out what teenagers and their parents need to learn, and what their experiences are, as teenagers learn to live well with T1DM. To identify these needs, we plan to conduct interviews with 15 teenagers and 15 of their caregivers guided by broad questions. We will then look for common themes throughout these conversations. Our findings will then support clinicians in meeting the SME needs of the teenager learning to live well with T1DM.