Research Description
Diabetes is a complex medical condition. Psychosocial, physiological, and technological factors have complex and overlapping influences of diabetes self-management and glycemic outcomes. For instance, someone may experience diabetes distress due to discontent with their device options and/or treatment regimen. Conversely, emotional distress can hinder people’s self-management as well as efforts to change/improve aspects of their care. For these reasons, traditional screening and intervention methods that target just one area of risk are unlikely to benefit those who experience multiple risk factors. The current study seeks to create an evidence-based, personalized, and patient-centered screening system that considers the context of the person with diabetes that can lead to an individualized menu of intervention options. To this end, an evidence-based screening system will be developed and piloted to assess multiple areas of risk and resiliency. The system will then be evaluated with a large sample that will compare pre- and post-test screening results across random assignment to interventions that specifically target diabetes device distress, diabetes distress, and problem-solving. Based on these results and the extant literature, an algorithm will be developed and evaluated that will generate intervention menu options based on screening results. In sum, the proposed project will produce an evidence-based, patient-centered screening system that can personalize diabetes care and provide judicious and targeted intervention options.Research Profile
What area of diabetes research does your project cover? What role will this particular project play in preventing, treating and/or curing diabetes?The current project will develop a multifaceted risk detection system based on the extant literature and our own available data on patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and from clinical laborites and medical charts. It will be designed to offset glycemic and mental health risk as well as promote personalized diabetes treatment recommendations and resources. The system will include components necessary to precisely detect risk across three primary domains: glycemic/health risk (physiological and health care utilization measures), diabetes distress (self-report of depression, distress, fear of hypoglycemia, social support), and device distress (diabetes self-management issues, negative attitudes toward diabetes technology, and misalignment between preferences and device use). The goal will be to prevent diabetes complications and improve treatment and self-management.
If a person with diabetes were to ask you how your project will help them in the future, how would you respond?The development of a state-of-the-art risk detection system can ensure that you and your provider have the information you need to give you personalized and optimal diabetes care and are offered the most appropriate resources to prevent complications and further risk.
Why important for you, personally, to become involved in diabetes research? What role will this award play?As a researcher and clinician, my goals is to optimize diabetes care to improve the lives and well-being of people living with diabetes. This award will allow me to advance those efforts and promote multidisciplinary care for people living with diabetes to ensure that people receive what is needed to prevent risk and thrive.
In what direction do you see the future of diabetes research going?From my perspective, diabetes research needs to continue to make strives toward a cure while also continuing to advance the treatment options and quality of diabetes care available. Diabetes require rigorous management that can take a toll on of aspect of one's life, so providing support and care that will minimize barriers and offset health risks is critical. That support must be beyond insulin dosages, but include technologies, psychosocial interventions and support, and based on the person's preferences and values.