Project goals:
Diabetes is a common chronic disorder in today's societies. Hypoglycaemia (low blood glucose level) is an important and burdensome side effect of the diabetes treatment. The IMI funded Hypo-RESOLVE project aims to investigate hypoglycaemia and its impact in diabetes (hypo-resolve.eu). Our team at the University of Southern Denmark is focused on the psychosocial aspects of hypoglycaemia; specifically, on establishing the impact of mild, moderate, and severe hypoglycaemia on quality of life in people with diabetes and their family members. Further, we intend to establish unmet care needs for these individuals, with the aim of improving clinical care for people with diabetes and hypoglycaemia.
Our project goals will be achieved by conducting:
- Rapid and systematic reviews to summarise and critique the current evidence base;
- Secondary analyses of pooled data from 100 clinical trials;
- A clinical study using a novel ecological momentary assessment (EMA) app;
- Innovative research that fills knowledge gaps.
We will investigate the psychosocial aspects of hypoglycaemia in the following populations:
- Children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes;
- Adults with type 1 diabetes;
- Adults with type 2 diabetes;
- Caregivers, partners, and family members of people with diabetes.
Background:
Diabetes is a chronic metabolic health condition with complex daily self-management requirements. People with diabetes engage in a range of daily tasks to maintain optimal blood glucose levels to prevent future microvascular and macrovascular complications. All people with type 1 diabetes and a large number of people with type 2 diabetes require intensive insulin therapy, either in the form of multiple daily injections or an insulin pump. With insulin therapy comes the risk for hypoglycaemia (low blood glucose), which can cause multiple acute and longer-term physiological symptoms, but can also impact on psychological wellbeing, cognitive functioning, and quality of life more broadly.
Led by Frans Pouwer and Jane Speight, our team aims to comprehensively investigate the current evidence base for the impact of hypoglycaemia on quality of life in people with diabetes and their family members. We will identify research gaps and unmet care needs of these individuals, and will conduct innovative multi-country studies to address these gaps.
Expected results:
This program of research is expected to show that hypoglycaemia has a significant impact on various domains of quality of life in people with diabetes and their family members. These may include aspects such as the person's physical health, emotional well-being, level of independence, social relationships, finances, sleep, daytime functioning, and cognitive functioning. Also of relevance are diabetes-specific psychological factors such as diabetes distress, diabetes stigma, and fear of hypoglycaemia. We expect that our results will help to inform future research and clinical care of individuals with diabetes and hypoglycaemia.
Project team:
Professor Frans Pouwer;
Professor Jane Speight;
Dr. Melanie Broadley;
Dr. Christel Hendrieckx;
Manon Coolen (PhD student);
Hannah Chatwin (PhD student);
Kevin Alan Matlock (PhD student);
Mette Valdersdorf Jensen (PhD student);
Uffe Holm Søholm (PhD student)