New research commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research's Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme is set to investigate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a structured educational programme for helping young people to manage their diabetes.

The incidence of type 1 diabetes in children continues to rise and 1 in 700 children are now affected. Given the early onset of the disease if poorly controlled this will lead to an increased use of NHS resources to deal with the problem which currently accounts for 5 per cent of the total NHS budget. In the absence of an immediate "cure" for diabetes ways of helping children cope with the demands of diabetes become essential.

The structured intensive psycho-educational programme has been developed by a team of researchers from the University College London Hospitals Trust working together with young people with diabetes and their families. Youngsters are invited to attend four group sessions, delivered over four months, with three to four families per group. The aim of the sessions is to develop their confidence in managing their diabetes, including how to adapt the amount of insulin they take, how to eat normally, and how to manage daily challenges such as exercise, illness, and holidays.

In a £1.5 million cluster randomised controlled trial, clinical nurse specialists in 13 clinics will attend training workshops, and then deliver the programme to over 500 children and young people from across 26 specialist centres. The researchers aim to investigate how acceptable the programme is, ease of delivery, participation and impact on health related quality of life, self management behaviour, emotional, behavioural and family functioning and service use. The programme will also be assessed for its cost-effectiveness.

This research follows an earlier study commissioned by the NIHR HTA programme, Health Technol. Assess; Vol 5.10, which reviewed educational and psychosocial interventions for young people with diabetes and highlighted the absence of high quality UK-based studies and the need for a programme of primary research on interventions for children and young people. For more details about this study visit http://www.hta.ac.uk/project/1019.asp

"Managing diabetes is challenging for children and young people, and despite parental support and expert education many struggle to control their diabetes," says lead researcher Dr Deborah Christie. "It is thought that combining educational and psychological approaches may help young people to gain the confidence and motivation they need to manage their diabetes effectively, but this is yet to be investigated properly. We hope that our research will help to inform the future development of services for young people with diabetes."

To view full details about the project visit http://www.hta.ac.uk/1669

Source: accessibility.com.au