Narrative Vs. Standard of Care Messages: Testing How Communication Can Positively Influence Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes

Abstract

Adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D) face a variety of challenges in disease management, and many struggle to achieve optimal glycemic control. Health communication through didactic messaging about the importance of self-management is a commonly used strategy for this population, but narratives have been underutilized. The purpose of this study was to determine if narratives would provide a better tool to improve disease management for adolescents overcoming T1D-specific issues. Adolescent ages 12–17 (N = 191) were enrolled in an online experiment and viewed sets of narratives or standard of care messages. Outcomes were broken into three categories: message evaluation, specifically perceived message effectiveness (PME), and positive emotional reactions; beliefs such as self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and stress and burnout perceptions, and behaviors including disease management and interpersonal communication. Narratives did not significantly outperform standard of care messages, but both message types scored high on PME and other outcomes. We conclude that both narrative and didactic formats may offer utility for healthcare providers working with adolescents, in that narratives provide stories that may inspire positive emotions while standard of care messages provide the necessary clinical information needed to set goals for self-management.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to recognize and thank Dr. Nina Jain and the rest of the pediatric endocrinology clinic at the University of North Carolina Children’s Hospital for helping to recruit participants. This study was made possible through the generous support by the Park Family and the Roy H. Park Foundation, as well as the Minnie S. and Eli A. Rubinstein Research Award provided by the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.