Diabetes Journey: An Adolescent Adherence Barriers Intervention

Diabetes Journey: An Intervention to Improve Adherence Barriers for Adolescents With Type 1 Diabetes

The purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a web-based intervention addressing adherence barriers in adolescents with T1D.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Type 1 Diabetes; Adherence, Patient
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Diabetes Journey; Behavioral: Enhanced Standard of Care

Detailed Description

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) treatment adherence is complex and involves glucose monitoring, counting carbohydrates, and intensive insulin delivery via injections or insulin pump in response to food intake, exercise, and illness to achieve near-normal blood glucose levels. Evidence demonstrates that adhering to T1D treatment is challenging, especially during adolescence. Non-adherence leads to suboptimal glycemic levels that severely compromise health and quality of life. Suboptimal adherence to T1D treatment regimen is common in >50% of adolescents and directly related to suboptimal glycemic control, increased risk of hospitalizations for diabetic ketoacidosis, and decreased health-related quality of life (HRQOL). The maximum benefits of current diabetes technology are limited by the knowledge, skills, adherence barriers, and non-adherence behaviors.10-14 Ultimately, adolescents have to overcome these barriers in order to benefit from technological advances. Thus, there is a clear need for behaviorally focused interventions to identify and reduce adherence barriers. The overall objective of this study is to identify adolescents with elevated adherence barriers and provide novel tailored mHealth intervention (Diabetes Journey) targeting these barriers. This study is two phases and includes a small pilot of up to 12 adolescents with type 1 diabetes (Phase 1) and a randomized controlled clinical trial (Phase 2). The randomized controlled clinical trial will examine feasibility, acceptability and preliminary efficacy of Diabetes Journey versus enhanced standard of care (control group) in approximately 256 adolescents with type 1 diabetes. Primary and secondary outcomes include adherence barriers, adherence, health-related quality of life and A1C. Satisfaction and acceptability will also be examined. Mediators and moderators will include executive functioning, diabetes distress, family conflict, depressive symptoms, fear of hypoglycemia and sleep.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 195
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Florida
    • Gainesville, Florida, United States, 32610-0165
      • University of Florida
  • Ohio
    • Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, 45229
      • Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 13 years to 17 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria

• T1D diagnosis >1 year
• Adolescents with T1D ages 13-17
• Elevations on the Barriers to Diabetes Adherence questionnaire (scores of ≥3 of 53 for the Stress/Burnout and/or Time Pressure/Planning subscales) based on their previous clinic visit scores
• Ability to read/speak English (all measures are in English)

Exclusion Criteria

• Diagnosis of significant developmental disorders (e.g., autism spectrum disorder, moderate/severe developmental or intellectual disability)
• Comorbid medical diagnoses (e.g., cystic fibrosis, asthma) with the exception of endocrine disorders (e.g., Celiac disease, thyroid)
• No use of/plans to use non-insulin medication for blood glucose control

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Diabetes Journey; Diabetes Journey is a web-based intervention to address key adherence barriers. Participants randomized to this arm will first receive the mandatory Introduction and Problem-Solving Module. Based on their elevations on the Barriers to Diabetes Adherence measure, participants will receive up to 7 modules in total. Participants will navigate through the web-based theme park map and complete modules independently and then will have accompanying Zoom telehealth sessions with a therapist.	Behavioral: Diabetes Journey; Web-based telehealth intervention focused on adherence barriers and problem-solving; Other Names: mHealth problem-solving adherence barriers intervention
Active Comparator: Enhanced Standard of Care; Participants randomized to Enhanced Standard of Care will receive general education via the T1DToolkit website, as well as 4 phone calls with certified diabetes educators (CDEs) from each site across 12-weeks. Content to address adherence barriers were modified and or newly developed for the Enhanced Standard of Care group via the T1DToolkit website.	Behavioral: Enhanced Standard of Care; General education via the T1DToolkit website, as well as 4 phone calls with certified diabetes educators (CDEs) will be provided.; Other Names: t1dtoolkit

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Barriers to Diabetes Adherence Questionnaire-Youth Report Stress/Burnout Subscale	Stress and Burnout Scale - assesses frustration and feeling burned out by diabetes and its management. Score range from 1-5, with higher scores representing greater barriers.	6-month follow-up
Barriers to Diabetes Adherence Questionnaire - Youth Report Time Pressure/Planning Subscale	Time Pressure and Planning Subscale - assesses the time and energy it takes to plan for diabetes self-management, including carrying supplies and making management decisions. Score range from 1-5, with higher scores representing greater barriers.	6-month follow-up

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Adherence	# blood glucose checks per day	6-month follow-up
Adherence for Insulin Pump Users	# carbohydrate entries per day for insulin pump users	6-month follow-up
Hemoglobin A1C	A blood test that measures the average blood sugar levels over the past two to three months.	6-month follow-up
Type 1 Diabetes and Life -Youth Report	Total Quality of Life Scores range from 0-100, with higher scores indicating better quality of life	6-month follow-up
Adherence for Continuous Glucose Monitors	% Time in Range for those on continuous glucose monitors.	6-month follow-up
Adherence to Insulin Boluses	The average of the frequency of insulin boluses delivered per day	6-month follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati
• Collaborators: University of Colorado, Denver; National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK); University of Florida

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): August 10, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 31, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): March 31, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 19, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 26, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): May 27, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 15, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 26, 2025
• Last Verified: June 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Adolescent; mHealth; executive functioning skills; adherence barriers
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Endocrine System Diseases; Metabolic Diseases; Autoimmune Diseases; Immune System Diseases; Glucose Metabolism Disorders; Diabetes Mellitus; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2020-0162; R01DK121295 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: The NIDDK Data Repository will serve as the primary data repository for the current proposal.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

The NIDDK Data Repository will serve as the primary data repository for the current proposal. In addition, data sets may also be distributed via clinicaltrials.gov. Should individuals or organizations request the dataset directly from the principal investigators, those requests will be directed to the NIDDK Data repository to retrieve the data.

Per NIDDK guidelines on resource sharing for intervention studies, baseline data will be shared within 2 years after study recruitment is complete or within six months of the publication date of the baseline data, whichever comes first. An analytic dataset for the baseline publication will be provided within 6 months of the publication date (when the publication appears online).

• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: The investigators agree that they will identify where the data will be available and how to access the data in any publications and presentations that the investigators author or co-author about these data, as well as acknowledge the repository and funding source in any publications and presentations. Since the investigators will be using the NIDDK Data Repository, this repository has policies and procedures in place that will provide data access to qualified researchers, fully consistent with NIH data sharing policies and applicable laws and regulations.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No