Developing an Intervention to Improve Outcomes for Young Adults with Type 1 Diabetes in Ireland

Lead Researcher:

Dr Sean Dineen

Award Date:

1 January 2013

Host Institution:

National University of Ireland, Galway

Scheme:

Health Research Award

Summary:

Young people with type 1 diabetes have to monitor their blood glucose levels and inject themselves with insulin several times per day. They also need to be careful about their diet and what exercise they do to achieve good blood glucose control. Many young adults struggle with these tasks and this can result in poor health outcomes (including premature death). We want to find out more about the difficulties young adults face in managing their diabetes and explore new ways of providing them with health care that meets their needs. We have experience in delivering and evaluating a structured education programme (called Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating or DAFNE) in adults with type 1 diabetes (average age 41 years) which has been shown to improve outcomes including wellbeing and quality of life. We will use this experience to develop an intervention of care delivery geared towards young adults (18 to 25 years). We will review the existing literature to identify what is known already about ways to help young adults manage their diabetes. A youth (advisory) panel will be set up so young people will have a say in the design and delivery of the proposed research. In addition, interviews and focus groups with young people (and other relevant people such as family, friends and healthcare providers), will be carried out to inform the development and testing of the intervention. We will establish a network of Diabetes Centres on the island of Ireland (North and South) interested in the care of young adults and we will ask them to participate in a future application to the Health Research Board to pilot test the new intervention developed in this project.