Poor Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) self-care results in poor metabolic control and is particularly challenging during adolescent years. Good metabolic control of T1D is important to prevent long-term negative outcomes. With
parents holding a central role in creating a safe learning environment and motivating adolescents to monitor food intake, blood glucose levels and insulin administration, the continual involvement of parents in sharing self-care responsibilities with adolescents with T1D is recommended to ensure good metabolic control. However, often parents of adolescents with T1D struggle with finding a balance between monitoring adolescents blood glucose control and fostering adolescent autonomy for their own diabetes self-care. While previous studies have indicated the need to develop an intervention to facilitate families to establish shared goals and positive parent adolescent communication about diabetes shared care, no family based intervention is currently available. The purpose of this study is to develop a plan for the design of a family based intervention to support parents’ in communicating and negotiating shared self-care responsibilities with adolescents (11-17 years) with T1D. Using the Medical Research Council guidelines for the development of healthcare interventions this study will involve five phases; (i) a systematic review of previous research in this subject area, (ii) clinic observations, (iii) interviews with 30 families (mothers and/or fathers and adolescents with T1D) and audio-diaries with 10 families, (iv) a questionnaire with about 175 parent(s) and adolescents with T1D and (v) the development of a plan for the design of a new healthcare intervention to support parent-adolescent (with T1D) communication about shared self-care responsibilities in T1D. The findings of this study will have many benefits to families with adolescents living with T1D most specifically it will afford them with an opportunity to have their needs reflected in the design of an intervention to support parent-adolescent communication about diabetes shared care.
