Diabetes in Control

Occupational Consequences in Type 1 Diabetes

According to research presented by Dr. Andrea Dehn-Hindenberg from the Hannover Medical School in Germany, mothers in children with diabetes experience many challenges in their occupational settings.

 Diabetes is a persistent condition that requires regular maintenance to limit adverse consequences.

When a child is diagnosed with diabetes, self-management of the disease is often unimaginable. Therefore, the management of the condition is conducted by the guardians of those children.

Although treatment options are vast and full of new advancements, the treatment of children is a tedious and trying task for caretakers. They are frequently entrusted with giving diabetes treatment consistently while giving proper nurturing and support to the remainder of the family. They also end up adjusting their day-to-day life and their occupational demands.

Family psychosocial factors have been shown to influence diabetes results in kids. As a result, diabetes treatment should incorporate the entire family and consolidate their efforts and difficulties in their professional and daily lives to accomplish the best treatment results for those children with diabetes.

This trial sought to investigate parents’ work-related and financial issues following their children’s onset of type 1 diabetes. This study aimed to highlight the burdens that come from type 1 diabetes on families and provide the necessary information to technology developers and policymakers to improve the quality of life of these individuals.

Dr. Dehn-Hindenberg and her colleagues submitted this research to the Journal of Diabetes Care to examine and summarize the benefits in this patient population.

Participants in this study included mothers, fathers, and primary caregivers of adolescents with type 1 diabetes. The questionnaire involved occupational and financial components of caregivers from their child’s diagnosis of diabetes. It included both parents’ job status, professional engagement activities, and financial loss from the diagnosis.

A total of 1192 participants agreed to complete the questionnaire. However, 1144 participants were included in the final sample. 82% of the respondents in the questionnaire were mothers. The mean age of children was 6.7 years old, and the duration of diabetes was 5.9 years. At the time of the survey, 62.5% were aged six to ten, while 45% were 11 to 14.

Before the diagnosis of diabetes in their children, 22.8% of mothers worked full time. Among these mothers, 15.1% of them stopped working after their child was diagnosed. 91% of fathers worked full time before and after the diagnosis occurred in their children. Parents also reported constraints on their professional development. 50.7% of mothers said they were negatively impacted due to their child’s diabetes. 95.9% of fathers reported no change in their professional development. According to the results, a moderate to significant financial burden was reported in 46.4% of families: the younger the child, the more severe the financial obligation.

In conclusion, more studies should be done to evaluate the vast components of taking care of adolescents with type one diabetes. This study helps to give more information on complications that can affect those in this patient population. According to Dr. Dehn-Hindenberg, “the findings demonstrate that mothers, rather than fathers, compromised their occupational success to provide care for their children with diabetes.”

References

Dehn-Hindenberg, Andrea, et al. “Long-Term Occupational Consequences for Families of Children with Type 1 Diabetes: The Mothers Take the Burden.” Diabetes Care, vol. 44, no. 12, 2021, pp. 2656–2663., link

Sundberg, Frida, et al. “Managing diabetes in preschool children.” (2017). link

Iversen, Anne Solveig, et al. “Being mothers and fathers of a child with type 1 diabetes aged 1 to 7 years: a phenomenological study of parents’ experiences.” International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being 13.1 (2018): 1487758. link

Kmeone Kingdom, MPH, PharmD Candidate, South College School of Pharmacy