Diabetic teenagers tend to have a lot of trouble sticking to their diabetes treatment if their parents become disinterested in monitoring the treatment plan for the Type 1 diabetic child, so the conclusions of a new study show.
The University of Utah psychologists study explores the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship and the effectiveness of parental monitoring of adolescents’ diabetes management .
The greater the involvement of the parent in improving the teenagers adherence to the type 1 diabetes regimen, the better their long term health .
Effective management of type 1 diabetes necessitates sticking to a complicated, demanding treatment plan, including several daily blood glucose tests, numerous insulin injections or use of an insulin pump,regular exercise, frequent meals, minimal fat and carbohydrate intake, as well as changes to insulin dosage based on diet and exercise. Type 1 diabetics produce no insulin of their own.
To arrive at these conclusions, the Utah psychologists carried out a ‘longitudinal’ study, whereby they analysed the behavior of 252 adolescent type 1 diabetics as well as their parents over a two-year period, carrying out interviews every six months reagrding the youths’ adherence to their treatment regime and various aspects of parental involvement.

Get our free newsletters

Stay up to date with the latest news, research and breakthroughs.