BACKGROUND
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) impacts more than 165,000 individuals under the age of 20 in the United States. The transition from parent management to parent-child team management, with the child taking on increased levels of self-care, can be stressful and is associated with a deterioration in self-management behaviors. A mobile app intervention, MyT1DHero was designed to facilitate diabetes specific positive parent-adolescent communication.
OBJECTIVE
To conduct a pilot test to determine the efficacy of the MyT1DHero app intervention.
METHODS
This pilot study included 30 adolescent-parent pairs in a 12-week single arm clinical trial.
RESULTS
The final analysis included 25 families. The mean age of the adolescents was 12.281.62 years old. Half of the participants reported a diagnosis of fewer than five years. After 12-weeks, diabetes adherence significantly improved (P=.02) as did quality of life (P=0.01). HbA1c level (P=.51) and family conflict (P=0.14) changed in the hypothesized direction, but the change was not significant. However, higher use of the mobile app was associated with more improvement in HbA1c, (F(1, 20)=9.74, P<.01, R2=.33). Overall, the adolescents were satisfied with app intervention.
CONCLUSIONS
In a 12-week pilot study of the mobile app intervention designed to facilitate parent-adolescent communication, significant benefits were demonstrated in adherence and quality of life. A randomized controlled trial with a longer intervention is needed to replicate these findings and determine the stability of intervention effects.
CLINICALTRIAL
NCT03436628
Quality of Life in Children with Type 1 Diabetes: A Comparison of General and Diabetes-Specific Measures, and Support for a Unitary Diabetes Quality of Life Construct
