Sugarsquare. Focus on the Adolescent: Digital Treatment of Type 1 Diabetes Through the Internet
Condition: Diabetes Mellitus
MeSH terms: Diabetes Mellitus
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Background

      The treatment of diabetes is multidisciplinary. Alignment of care of the various professional
      disciplines is, however, not always optimal. This can lead to confusion about treatment
      interventions and behavioral advices. In adolescence, good fine-tuned care is of extreme
      importance because of the difficulties in regulation of the disease in this phase of life
      (Snoek, 2004). These difficulties are due to biological changes but also to
      socio-psychological developmental changes. The adolescents' psychological development demands
      more autonomy and responsibility for the diabetes (care) by the adolescent. The social
      development can conflict with the treatment regime, because of the adolescents' social needs
      (ADA, 2001; Houdijk, 1998; Snoek, 2004). In this study the investigators assess whether an
      interactive website, on which adolescents with diabetes and their treatment team can
      communicate, leads to better alignment of care and better control over the disease.

      Intervention

      The diabetes has great impact on the adolescents' everyday life. Finding a balance between
      more autonomy, participating in social life with (healthy) peers and control of the disease
      is difficult and seems to act as a thread during this phase in life.

      This can lead to questions and uncertainty at any given moment. The interactive website
      provides the adolescent access to information and to his or her individual treatment plan and
      advices fitted to his or her condition and life. The adolescent can pose questions at any
      given moment through the online forum and their personal treatment page. Since the treatment
      team answers the question within a day, fit between diabetes care and adolescents' everyday
      life is optimized.

      Research question

      Does an online interactive treatment environment, on which adolescents with diabetes can
      communicate with their treatment team, lead to better fit of care and to better disease
      control?
    


Intervention name(s): Internet intervention
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Our intervention, Sugarsquare, is a secured treatment environment only accessible by patients of the KDCN and members of the treatment team. Sugarsquare consists of two main sections. The first section is a semi-public setting on which adolescents can exchange experiences with their diabetes (care) through a forum and a real time chat-application. All patients and treatment team members can see all messages posted here. The second section consists of patients' individual pages with treatment overview and an application for private interaction with the treatment team. Patients can only access their own individual page; treatment team members can access pages of all patients. Sugarsquare is a secured webpage, accessible only through computers equipped with the right certificate (access device) and by using the appointed username-password combination.
Allocation: Randomized
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Supportive Care
Keywords: diabetes mellitus; adolescent; online intervention; psychosocial; quality of life