Puberty can be a very difficult time for wellness and wellbeing, and that is never more serious than when your teenager happens to have diabetes. Puberty is often a time when diabetes control becomes problematic, but a recent study conducted at Yale has found that diabetes coping programmes can be really effective in helping to reverse that effect.
The reason that children have problems controlling their diabetes when they enter puberty is that they suffer a great deal of stress due to the transition into adulthood, and this can have a knock-on effect on their diabetes management. It has been found, however, that web-based interactive programmes can be highly effective in increasing their health and diabetes management.
The study was conducted using 320 children participants, who were randomly assigned to two different internet-based programmes, both of which had been developed at Yale. These two programmes were called TeenCope and Managing Diabetes. These two programmes were designed to help youngsters cope with the challenges of adolescence and to help them manage their condition through modifications in lifestyle.
All of the subjects were selected for being of a similar type and having similar backgrounds, in order to ensure that the study was carried out on an even playing field. Those who completed one of the courses had a better chance of managing their diabetes but the best results were seen in those who had completed both programmes.
Blood sugars tend to increase during puberty, for a number of reasons, but these programmes have been shown to effectively reduce them again.