Quality of life and glycemic control in adolescents with type 1 diabetes and the impact of an education intervention

Abstract

Objective:

To assess quality of life (QoL) and glycemic control in adolescents with type 1 diabetes and to investigate the impact of an educational program.

Methods:

A quasiexperimental study with nonrandomized experimental and control groups was conducted in which a total of 503 adolescents with type 1 diabetes completed a questionnaire using the Diabetes Quality of Life Instrument for Youth. Adolescents were then assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group was subjected to four 120-minute sessions of an educational program over a period of 4 months. Extracted medical chart data included the duration of diabetes, insulin dosage, and most recent hemoglobin A1c levels. Analysis of covariance was used to detect the impact of intervention.

Results:

The overall mean QoL score (%) was 76.51 ± 9.79, with good QoL in 38% of all adolescents. Poorer QoL was significantly associated with older age (P < 0.001), more hospital admissions in the last 6 months (P = 0.006), higher levels of depression (P < 0.001), poor self-esteem (P < 0.001), and poor self-efficacy (P < 0.001). There was significant deterioration in all domains of QoL in the experimental group after intervention. However, this deterioration was significantly less severe than in the control group. Between-group effects on total knowledge, adherence to exercise, glucose monitoring, treatment, self-efficacy, family contribution to management, glycemic control, and satisfaction with life were significantly in favor of the experimental group.

Conclusion:

Education intervention for adolescents with type 1 diabetes could be a safeguard against possible deterioration in QoL and glycemic control over time.

Keywords:

• adolescents
• diabetes
• QoL
• glycemic
• intervention

Acknowledgements

This study was approved by the Research Committee of the High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt. We thank the editing service office at King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC), King Saud Bin-Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the English language editing of the manuscript via a specialist English language copy editor (American Journal Experts).

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.