Mental disorders in adults with type 1 diabetes: pilot study

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Prevalence of mental disorders in adults living with type 1 diabetes: A pilot feasibility study of a two-stage survey design.

  • IRAS ID

    304389

  • Contact name

    Hermione Price

  • Contact email

    hermione.price@southernhealth.nhs.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 0 months, 1 days

  • Research summary

    Type 1 diabetes is a very demanding health condition. It requires intensive daily self-management to avoid both high and low blood glucose levels. Self-management involves complex skills including frequent blood glucose monitoring, carbohydrate counting, injecting insulin multiple times a day or using an insulin pump to avoid diabetes‐related complications. This management is very complex and psychologically demanding for the individual.
    People living with type 1 diabetes are more likely to experience mental health disorders. The combination of type 1 diabetes and mental health disorders lead to worse outcomes for both conditions. Quality of life is worse, diabetes self-management is impaired, complications are increased, and life expectancy is reduced. However, there are very low detection rates of mental health disorders in people living with diabetes, and nearly half of cases go undetected. It has been recommended that people with type 1 diabetes receive mental health screening and support to treat mental health disorders, but integrated care for these patients remains poor. We need to understand how many people and what type of mental health disorders are being experienced by people with type 1 diabetes. This will help to improve health outcomes and care for these people.
    We will conduct a pilot study with a feasibility component of a two-stage survey design, to estimate the distribution of mental health problems by severity in a sample of adults with type 1 diabetes. Stage 1 involves a survey with a number of self-report screening tools to identify mental health disorders and diabetes specific mental health problems. Stage 2 will involve a sample of those who completed stage 1 to complete a diagnostic interview for mental health disorders. We will recruit participants from one general practice surgery in Hampshire, England. A Patient and Public Involvement group has been involved from the beginning of the project and will continue to be involved in all stages of the research.

  • REC name

    North East - York Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    21/NE/0177

  • Date of REC Opinion

    17 Sep 2021

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion