Key points:
- Diabetes distress is the fears, worries, and burdens related to living with and managing diabetes.
- Researchers found that the virtual emotion-focused program TunedIn led to significant and clinically meaningful decreases in diabetes distress.
- The results highlight the importance of considering diabetes distress in treatment interventions, particularly through virtual programs that can increase access for more patients.
Diabetes distress refers to the fear, worry, and burdens linked to living with and managing diabetes. In adults with Type 1 diabetes, diabetes distress results in poor self-management – missing doses, elevated glucose levels, and hypoglycemia. A new study, published in Diabetes Care, reveals that the most effective strategy to reduce the distress that comes with having diabetes is to focus on managing emotional strain.
Two hundred and seventy-six adults with Type 1 diabetes were randomly assigned to one of three virtual group programs. The first focused on education about the management of diabetes, the second emphasized the emotional side of living with diabetes, and the third combined both approaches.
The team found that all programs resulted in clinically meaningful reductions in diabetes distress and measures of glucose control. However, the emotion-focused program called TunedIn had the most consistent benefits and was most effective at lowering diabetes distress.
“Most patients with diabetes have never heard of diabetes distress, or been asked about it, and don’t understand that it can be alleviated,” explained first author Danielle Hessler Jones, professor at University of California – San Francisco (UCSF). “Knowing virtual group-based programs are effective presents an opportunity to change that.”
The results highlight the importance of considering diabetes distress in treatment interventions. Importantly, the TunedIn virtual program can increase access for patients nationwide, and potentially worldwide.
“If you don’t address the emotional part of living with the illness, you don’t do well,” said co-author Umesh Masharani, professor at UCSF. “It’s important that clinicians are trained on how to have these conversations with their patients with diabetes as part of normal care.”