Interstitial glucose and subsequent affective and physical feeling states: A pilot study combining continuous glucose monitoring and ecological momentary assessment in adolescents

Abstract

ObjectiveCirculating glucose may relate to affective and physical feeling states reflective of emotional disorder symptoms. No prior studies have investigated within-day associations between glucose and subsequent affective and physical feeling states (positive affect, negative affect, and fatigue) as they occur naturally among healthy adolescents; this pilot study assessed these associations by combining data collected from ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and continuous glucose monitors (CGM). MethodsParticipants (N = 15, mean age = 13.1[±1.0] years, 66.7% female, 40.0% Hispanic, 66.7% healthy weight) wore a CGM for 7–14 days. Simultaneously, participants reported on their current positive affect, negative affect, and fatigue randomly during specified windows up to 7 times daily via EMA. CGM-measured mean interstitial glucose was calculated during the time windows (mean minutes = 122.5[±47.3]) leading up to each EMA prompt. Multilevel models assessed within-subject (WS) associations between mean interstitial glucose since the previous EMA prompt and EMA-reported affective and physical feeling states at the current prompt. ResultsParticipants provided 532 interstitial glucose-matched EMA reports of affective and physical feeling states. During intervals when interstitial glucose was higher than one's usual, higher positive affect (WS β = 0.01, p < .0001, f2 = 0.02) and lower fatigue (WS β = −0.01, p < .0001, f2 = 0.09) were subsequently reported. Interstitial glucose was unrelated to negative affect (WS β = −0.002, p = .10, f2 = 0.01). Associations were weakened, but remained significant following further adjustment for time of day. ConclusionsThough effect sizes were small, within-person variations in interstitial glucose may relate to subsequent affective and physical feeling states among healthy youth. Investigations using similar methodologies in larger, more diverse samples are warranted.