ORIGINAL RESEARCHDietary Self-Care in Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes: Report from the Juvenile Diabetes and Dietary Study
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INTRODUCTION
To keep blood glucose levels within a normal range, young patients with type 1 diabetes must perform a complex set of self-care activities, including insulin replacement and following a healthy diet as recommended in Health Canada's Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide (1). Specifically, this involves consuming a wide variety of foods from each of the 4 food groups that suit young patients’ nutritional needs, eating habits, lifestyle, ability and interest, and matching food consumption with
Procédure and participants
Data were obtained from the first wave of the Juvenile Diabetes and Dietary Study, a 3-year longitudinal study of dietary self-care in families of adolescents with type 1 diabetes (10). Participants were recruited at the outpatient clinics of 2 major pediatric diabetes centres in the province of Quebec. Rather than relying on a convenience sample of patients, efforts were invested in the identification of all patients with type 1 diabetes aged 11 to 17 years and who attended the 2 outpatient
Preliminary analysis
The demographic and lifestyle characteristics of participants are presented in Table 1. In total, 289 consecutive series of adolescents participated in this study (133 girls, 46%).There were no significant differences between boys and girls with respect to the number of medical complications related to diabetes, diabetes duration or age. Factors related to adolescents’ general self-care recommendations and practices are presented in Table 2. The mean number of glucose readings per day was 3.6
DISCUSSION
The present study aimed to document dietary self-care and motivation in adolescents with type 1 diabetes. Along with demographic and lifestyle information, diabetes self-care recommendations, practices and metabolic control were documented in a consecutive series of adolescents with type 1 diabetes. Results showed that adolescents performed up to 3 or more glycemic readings and insulin injections per day. Few had received physical activity counselling at diagnosis, but the majority were
AUTHOR DISCLOSURES
This study was conducted in partial fulfillment of the require- ments for the doctoral dissertation of Stéphanie Austin and was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Société et la Culture and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
SA participated in the data collection, data analysis and interpretation, and in drafting the manuscript. CS participated in the study design, supervision of the data collection, and the critical revision of the manuscript. FG participated in the review of the data and the manuscript. AN participated in the review of the manuscript. Funding was secured by CS, FG, and AN.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank the adolescents and their families who participated in this study. We also thank the pediatric diabetes staff at all participating hospitals, especially Dr Isabelle Bouchard and Dr Michel Lelièvre of the Centre Hospitalier de l'Université Laval and Dr Maria Buithieu of Sainte-Justine Hospital for their assistance and support throughout this project.
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2013, Australian Psychologist