ESPE Abstracts

Background: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is a complex chronic condition common in children and young people. Structured age-appropriate life-long education for patients and their carers is very important to manage this complex condition.

Objective: To critically evaluate the available Structured Education Programmes (SEPs) including psychosocial interventions in children and young people (CYP) with T1DM and its impact on medical and psychosocial outcomes.

Method: 9 electronic databases were searched for studies published between January 2007 and March 2014. 38 relevant papers from 30 studies were analysed.

Results: Of these 30 studies, 1 (3%) was a systematic review, 17 (57%) were randomised controlled trials (RCT), 4 (13%) were case–control studies and 8 (27%) were Before and After (BA) studies. 18 out of 27 studies showed decrease in HbA1c after the intervention, ranging from 0.28% to 1.3%, with a mean of 0.59% (SD 0.28%). In five out of seven studies, quality of life (QOL) improved and in 18 out of 21 studies psychosocial outcomes improved after an intervention. A wide variety of interventions including general education programme, family therapy and motivational interviewing were used for varied duration in different settings. Although family-centred interventions and motivational interviewing produced promising results, the results couldn’t be replicated in larger samples.

Conclusion: As the results of different interventions used were not consistent, none of these interventions on its own could be strongly recommended for current clinical practice. Hence more high quality studies with combination of interventions are needed.