Attitudes towards self-control with urinalysis in juvenile diabetes

Urinary glucose excretion reflects the blood glucose levels and is therefore recommended and used as a relevant and practical method for self-control in juvenile diabetes. The purpose of this study was to estimate the attitudes of of diabetic children and their parents towards such daily urinalysis. In 1975 69 juvenile diabetics 6-18 years old and their parents were studied and three years later another 69 patients were added. Still a year later 31 of the children were studied again. Standardized interviews, questionnaires and a special attitude test were used. The results indicate that a great majority of the patients and the parents accept the self-testing method and regard it as a valuable tool in the management of the disease. Almost nobody experienced the urine tests as a psychological problem. As urinalysis has become established as a self-evident part of the treatment, the attitudes have become even more positive among a growing number of patients. Parallel to this feeling of usefulness the patients are honest and the urine tests thus give reliable information.