Do children with diabetes demonstrate improved psychosocial scores and diabetic control after completing a psycho educational therapy group?Background
Diabetes is one of the chronic conditions that are affecting children (McGill et al, 2004). A poor control of glycaemia leads to both short-term and long-term conditions. Therefore, in addition to maximum medical management, psychosocial factors and interventions play a key role to improve the outcomes of the young adolescents with diabetes. The psycho-educational interventions have recognized the need to develop new methods in consultation with the key stakeholders including the patients, families, and other diabetes healthcare teams. On this note, this paper will seek to answer the question whether children with diabetes demonstrate improved psychosocial scores and diabetic control after completing a psycho educational therapy group
Description of setting
School medical center that is affiliated with a PCMH level 3 Jamaican hospitals. On the site, there is one social worker, a psychiatrist, one behavioral health clinician, nurse, principal, and assistant principal. Also, there are 40 teachers and two medical doctors who offer primary care. This site also serves over 400 children per year for behavioral and medical issues. For instance, it offers acre to children with diabetes because they have behavioral and mental issues such as depression.
Description of population/study
This study will involve 1000 children aged 5-18 years. Families and care givers will be included too, and the data will be collected will be collected for three months. Secondly, the participants will be at the clinic, and they will be chosen for this research because of their diabetes and mental health conditions.
Procedures
This study will be carried out in a school based health center which is affiliated to Jamaica hospital which is a PCMH LEVEL 3. Secondly, 1000 children aged 5-18 years will be recruited. Their families will be considered too in order to get comprehensive answers to the research question. Secondly, care givers such as the nurses, clinicians, and doctors will be consulted to enhance the validity of the results. On the other confidentiality and the consent of the patients are crucial during the research. For instance, during the research, I will inform the patients on their rights to refuse to participate in the research. I will also ensure that feedback is confidential, and it cannot be accessed by other people. Also, to ensure the security of the data, I will use computer applications such as MS Word to save the collected data electronically (Park, 2009). The evidence-based treatments will come in handy as methods of evaluation during this research.
Measures
A dependent sample t-Test will be the most appropriate measure in this case. The rationale for selecting this measure is based on the fact that it will tell if the difference of the pre and posttests is significant. This is to say that, the assumption of the t-Test in this study will indicate that the only differences between the scores collected before and after is the effect of the psycho-educational group (Park, 2009).
Data collection
Data will be collected from the responses of the patients, families, and caregivers. All the data collected will be stored in a computer system that will be protected with a password to restrict unauthorized access. The collected data will be organized to show the population of study, the methods of data collection, the results, and areas that need further research in the future. In addition, because this research aims at improving the psychosocial scores and diabetic control by completing a psycho-educational therapy, I will publish my results in a medical journal to ensure my results are disseminated in a way that will be accessed by as many people as possible.
Research design
This is a convenience study, and therefore, a qualitative research design will be followed. First, it will include participant observation that will help me to understand the familiarity of the population study. I will apply a complete participation to ensure that I will be fully integrated with the participants to encourage their participation. This research will include the care givers such as the nurses and doctors. Therefore, an in-depth interview will be practical to collect explicit data that will help to complete the research.
Data analysis
After data is collected, statistical tests will be used to evaluate any variables of the participants in the psycho-education group. This is a group that is designed to help the children to manage their emotions, and develop coping skills that will lead to better management of their condition. In this case, the Glyco Mark (1, 5-AG) and pediatric symptom checklist scores will be used as dependent variables. On the one hand, Glyco Mark is a valid score that will help to measure how well the participants are managing their diabetic conditions (McGill et al, 2004). It reflects when the glycemia levels are above the threshold over the preceding 1-2 weeks. For instance, when the glucose levels rises above 180 mg/dl, 1, 5-AG will be excreted in the urine at higher levels to reduce the amount in the blood (McGill et al, 2004). On the other hand, the validity of the pediatric symptom checklist lies in its ability to show how much of the coping skills those children have internalized, and their ability to cope. In this way, it measures whether the child has psychosocial problems (Stoppelbein et al, 2005). It is determined by using the responses of the participants depending on the words they use to answer questions. These are words such as never, sometimes, and often.
- McGill, J. B., Cole, T. G., Nowatzke, W., Houghton, S., Ammirati, E. B., Gautille, T., & Sarno, M. J. (2004). Circulating 1, 5-anhydroglucitol levels in adult patients with diabetes reflect longitudinal changes of glycemia: a US trial of the GlycoMark assay. Diabetes Care, 27(8), 1859-1865.
- Park, H. M. (2009). Comparing Group Means: T-tests and One-way ANOVA using Stata, SAS, R, and SPSS.
- Stoppelbein, L., Greening, L., Jordan, S. S., Elkin, T. D., Moll, G., & Pullen, J. (2005). Factor analysis of the Pediatric Symptom Checklist with a chronically ill pediatric population. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 26(5), 349-355.
