The Glucose Control Resistance Scale

While past research found family conflict, disordered eating, body image concerns and anxious self-doubts may affect adolescent diabetic glucose control, available measures of adherence mainly focus on management tasks. The current study aimed to combine measures of emotional distress and beliefs with decisions concerning management in a new measure of resistance to treatment adherence: the 12-item Glucose Control Resistance Scale (GCRS).

Participants included 135 adolescents and their parents from a pediatric diabetes clinic. Family conflict, body image concerns, anxious self-doubts and glucose control resistance were assessed.

Factor analysis identified 12 items, with loadings of ≥0.40, which were used to form the GCRS. The scale had adequate reliability and there was a significant correlation between child and parent GCRS scores. One factor, family conflict, was significantly related to hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels, but a set of four factors explained a total of 12% of the variance in HbA1c levels. Of the demographic variables considered (gender, number of parents at home, age, body mass index z-score), only gender was significantly associated with adolescent perceptions of family conflict.

The GCRS may allow diabetic care teams to better understand the origin of family conflict perceptions and the motivational beliefs that modify behavior and contribute to independent self-management and glucose control. Each question was designed to be meaningful in interventions by addressing common items of resistance to adherence and impulsive management decisions. The GCRS may be used by providers as an initial short screening survey on an annual or semi-annual basis.