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Telehealth interventions to reduce management complications in type 1 diabetes: A review
Amanda M Balkhi1, Adam M Reid1, Sarah C Westen1
1Amanda M Balkhi, Adam M Reid, Sarah C Westen, David M Janicke, Gary R Geffken, Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, United States.
Insights
Telehealth interventions improve type 1 diabetes management for youth, overcoming barriers like time and cost. Challenges include participant dropout and reimbursement issues, requiring further solutions.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Endocrinology
- Digital Health
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Type 1 diabetes (T1D) management is complex, posing significant challenges for pediatric patients and families.
- Existing in-person interventions for T1D self-management and psychosocial support face barriers like time, cost, and accessibility.
- Telehealth offers a scalable solution to deliver T1D care interventions to a wider audience.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review self-management and psychosocial telehealth interventions for type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents.
- To highlight the role of mobile and internet-based technologies in T1D care delivery.
- To discuss the efficacy, cost-effectiveness, and implementation challenges of telehealth for T1D.
Main Methods:
- Systematic review of telehealth interventions for T1D self-management and psychosocial support.
- Emphasis on mobile phone and internet-based technologies.
- Analysis of intervention efficacy, cost-effectiveness, and implementation barriers.
Main Results:
- Telehealth interventions demonstrate efficacy in improving T1D self-management and addressing psychosocial needs in pediatric populations.
- Telehealth interventions show improved cost-effectiveness compared to traditional in-person care.
- Key challenges include high participant attrition rates and difficulties securing reimbursement for telehealth services.
Conclusions:
- Telehealth is a promising approach for delivering T1D care to youth, enhancing self-management and psychosocial well-being.
- Addressing challenges such as participant retention and reimbursement is crucial for widespread telehealth adoption in T1D care.
- Recommendations are provided for researchers and providers to optimize telehealth interventions for pediatric T1D management.
Abstract:
Type 1 diabetes is a chronic illness with a high burden of care. While effective interventions and recommendations for diabetes care exist, the intensive nature of diabetes management makes compliance difficult. This is especially true in children and adolescents as they have unique psychosocial and diabetes needs. Despite the development of effective in-person interventions targeting improving self-management and ameliorating psychosocial difficulties there are still a number of barriers to implementing these interventions, namely time, cost, and access. Telehealth interventions allow for the dissemination of these interventions to a broader audience. Self-management and psychosocial telehealth interventions are reviewed with a special emphasis on mobile phone and internet based technology use. While efficacy has been demonstrated in a number of telehealth interventions with improved cost effectiveness over in-person interventions, many challenges remain including high participant attrition and difficulties with receiving reimbursement for services rendered. These and other challenges are discussed with recommendations for researchers and telehealth providers provided.
