Quality of Life, Coping Ability, and Metabolic Control in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes Managed By Group Care and a Carbohydrate Counting Program
- Marina Trento, MES, MBA1,
- Enrica Borgo1,
- Claudia Kucich, MD1,
- Pietro Passera, MD1,
- Anna Trinetta, BS1,
- Lorena Charrier, MD2,
- Franco Cavallo, MD2 and
- Massimo Porta, MD, PHD1
- 1the Laboratory of Clinical Pedagogy, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Turin, Turin, Italy;
- 2Department of Public Health and Microbiology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
- Corresponding author: Marina Trento, marina.trento{at}unito.it.
Group care is a clinical-pedagogic model in which traditional routine visits are substituted by sessions of group education. This approach improves quality of life and metabolic control in patients with type 2 diabetes (1) but only quality of life in those with type 1 diabetes (2). The latter must match multiple daily insulin administrations with blood glucose monitoring, dietary intake, and energy expenditure (3). We hypothesized that to improve their coping strategies, patients with type 1 diabetes need more specific training in the technical aspects of day-to-day management of insulin therapy. To verify this, we studied the effects of embedding a carbohydrate counting program within group care on quality of life, knowledge …
