Challenges and Considerations for Reducing Diabetes Distress and Fear of Hypoglycemia in Parents of Youth With Type 1 Diabetes During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Alexandra Monzon,Nicole Kahhan,Susana Patton,Arwen Marker

doi:10.2196/25106

Abstract

Type 1 diabetes management can be challenging for children and their families. To address psychosocial concerns for parents of youth with type 1 diabetes, we developed two parent-focused interventions to reduce their diabetes distress and fear of hypoglycemia. Our team conducted several of these interventions during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and recognized a need to make timely adjustments to our interventions. In this viewpoint article, we describe our experience conducting these manualized treatment groups during the pandemic, the range of challenges and concerns specific to COVID-19 that parents expressed, and how we adjusted our approach to better address parents’ treatment needs.

Highlights

The daily self-management of type 1 diabetes (T1D) is complex and unrelenting
We found that nearly 60% of parents of young children with T1D (
We describe our experience conducting these manualized treatment groups with parents of youth with T1D during the pandemic, the range of challenges and concerns specific to COVID-19 that parents brought up in groups, and how we, in turn, adjusted our approach to better address parents’ experiences and treatment needs

Summary

Introduction

The daily self-management of type 1 diabetes (T1D) is complex and unrelenting. It involves regular glucose monitoring, healthy eating and carbohydrate assessment, insulin administration via syringe or continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion, and physical activity [1]. Parents receiving the REDCHiP intervention showed significant reductions in their report of FH (P=.003, d=1.01) and parenting stress (P=.003, d=0.85), and children with glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels >7.5% prior to REDCHiP showed a significant reduction in their HbA1c levels (P=.049, d=0.43) after participating in the intervention [13] Based on these promising results, we are in the process of conducting a larger randomized clinical trial to test the efficacy of our REDCHiP intervention versus a relevant attention control group [14].

Participants and Author Viewpoint

Findings

Conclusions