Managing Type 1 Diabetes can stress teenagers
Teenagers with Type 1 Diabetes may need help as they start to incur more responsibility for monitoring their blood glucose levels and administering insulin.
147 teens with Type 1 Diabetes took a part in the research and were monitored during six months. Overall, conflict levels between parent and child remained steady enough at this time. But, the study found that younger teenagers who have started to incur more responsibility for their own care and who had more conflict with parents became less diligent about monitoring their blood glucose levels and had increased levels of hemoglobin A1c — a measure of how well blood glucose has been controlled over time.
The increase of levels A1c is typical of what occurs during late youth and early adult life, according to the study co-author Korey Hood, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
“What you are inclined to see as you look at large-scale clinical data is that A1c trends from the age of 12 or 13 steadily lifting in young adult life, and then it starts to decrease in the middle of 20-s',” Hood said.
“This transition from managing diabetes with the parents to independent management is a huge problem,” Aaron Kowalski, assistant vice president for glucose control research at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, said. Not only do the teens face the typical stresses and peer pressure of adolescence, he noted, but they also should deal with increased responsibility for managing their diabetes.
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