The relation between awareness of personal resources and metabolic control in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

Abstract

The study aims to elucidate whether awareness of personal resources, such as positive attributions and beliefs or social support, affects metabolic control in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes. In addition, it will be determined to what extent metabolic control is influenced by concordance between children and parents regarding awareness of resources and the parents' ability to adopt their children's perspective. Also, the children's wishes particularly in relation to their illness will be investigated, as well as the kind of advice they would offer to fellow patients. Seventy-eight children/adolescents with type 1 diabetes completed the Essen Resource Inventory for Children and Adolescents including personal, social, structural, and migration-specific resources. In addition, children/adolescents and their parents completed a systemic-oriented, diabetes-specific resource questionnaire in order to explore the parents' ability to adopt their children's perspective. Resources such as body awareness and open-minded attitude to the disease were associated with metabolic control. Particularly, resources associated to a migration background were found to be inversely correlated with hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) value. Moreover, it was shown that the parents' ability to adopt their children's perspective was associated with improved metabolic control. Children advising fellow patients to accept the disease showed the best HbA1c value. This data identified specific modifiable factors related to metabolic control that can be addressed during counseling of pediatric patients. Also the parents' ability for adopting their child's perspective was identified as a relevant factor which should be considered during clinical counseling of young type 1 diabetes patients.