ASCEND study v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Association between blood Sugar Control and Executive function in social contexts iN young people with Type 1 Diabetes mellitus (ASCEND study): a pilot study
IRAS ID
258592
Contact name
Anne-Lise Goddings
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON HOSPITAL/UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON JOINT RESEARCH OFFICE
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 2 days
Research summary
Managing type 1 diabetes during adolescence can be particularly challenging, and sugar control is often poor, increasing the likelihood of long-term diabetes-related health complications. Poor diabetes control in adolescence is thought to result from disease pathology and suboptimal management as individuals begin assuming responsibility for their diabetes while simultaneously experiencing many biological, psychological and social changes. Understanding adolescent cognitive development may help when developing strategies to facilitate engagement from young people in their own diabetes management by providing insight into their motivations and behaviours.
This project will investigate whether quality of sugar control in 12-16 year-olds with diabetes is associated with skills in decision-making, stopping automatic responses, shifting between tasks and manipulating information. These skills, termed ‘executive functions’, together control our behaviours and will be measured using four computer-based tasks via an online secure platform. Each task assesses executive function with neutral objects e.g. shapes and with faces, which require participants to process social information during the task. Diabetes is predicted to impact on both executive functions and social information processing skills. Adolescents with poor sugar control, assessed using continuous glucose monitoring sensors and clinical records, are expected to perform less well on executive functions tests than their peers with better sugar control, and it is expected that these differences will be exacerbated when the tasks also contain social information.
Evaluating how adolescents with diabetes process information in social contexts is crucial for understanding real-life behaviours and developing interventions to enhance diabetes management and reduce incidence of long-term complications.REC name
London - Brent Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/LO/0515
Date of REC Opinion
10 Oct 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion