Experiences with a group intervention for adolescents with type 1 diabetes and their parents

Abstract

Background: Increased adolescent-parent engagement in diabetes-related tasks appears to decrease diabetes-related family conflict. Group intervention may be a good approach when caring for adolescents with chronic conditions, including diabetes.

Aim: This article aims to describe how group intervention may be useful in the treatment of adolescents with type 1 diabetes. When these children enter puberty and become adolescents, it can become difficult. In many cases, family-related conflict has a negative impact on an adolescent’s blood sugar levels and self-care behaviour.

Method: 19 adolescents (age 13–17 years) and their parents participated in group intervention. Families were recruited from outpatient clinics in two centres in Middle-Norway. Separate groups met once a month for 1 year. All adolescents and parents completed a battery of self-report measures. In addition, HbA_1c values were obtained five times from the adolescents’ medical records.

Results: In terms of metabolic control there was a significant decrease in HbA_1c values in the girls studied. In adolescents of both sexes, the process of deterioration was stopped.

Conclusion: The development of efficient interventions for this group of patients is highly needed. Our intervention was peer-oriented and psycho-educative. Although the sample size in this study was small, one may still consider that group intervention may improve parent-adolescent relationships. Results from the study also demonstrate that group intervention may improve metabolic control in girls, without deterioration in health-related quality-of-life.

Keywords:

• Diabetes
• adolescents
• parents
• group intervention