Diabetes is a significant public health challenge that affects millions of individuals worldwide. As a chronic condition, it also leads to costly treatment and impacts the countries’ economies. Diabetes occurs and develops in people of all ages and requires self-management for maintaining relatively healthy conditions. Such groups as young children, adolescents, or incapacitated adults might experience issues and health worsening caused by the lack of self-control (Rankin et al., 2018). Diabetes management can be especially difficult for teenagers because of the hormonal changes they experience and their parents’ involvement. This period is critical because it influences how adolescents would control their diabetes in the future and how their systems would develop.
Numerous studies of different designs have already been conducted to explore how adolescents deal with diabetes, and the results provided a foundation for further research. For instance, the range of their parents’ involvement in the self-management practices can be a crucial factor in treatment and control (Eva et al., 2018). A teenager might be better at developing a correct set of regulations and prevent diabetes from worsening without any interventions (Eva et al., 2018). Consequently, a research question would be “How does the parents’ intervention influence an adolescent’s self-management with diabetes?.” This paper aims to discuss the epidemiologic study design appropriate for exploring the selected question and analyze the potential data sources’ strengths and limitations.
Based on the question “How does the parents’ intervention influence an adolescent’s self-management with diabetes?” the study can be conducted in the experimental randomized trial design to achieve objective results. Furthermore, that type of research allows to compare approaches used in a population and isolate the effects from other influential factors (Flannelly et al., 2018). Dividing the participants based on the decreased and increased parental involvement and performing specific measures would be a profound methodology appropriate for an experimental study design (Friis & Sellers, 2021). The application of experimental study design with randomized groups can also be supported by the assumption that diabetes self-management is better executed without parents’ intervention.
Data sources for studying the question about the role of parents’ intervention in adolescents’ self-management include the previous qualitative and quantitative researches, interviews with participants, and diabetes control practices exploring. Moreover, information that provides insights about the selected population from a behavioral and psychological perspective would be helpful to develop the trial strategy before randomizing (Flannelly et al., 2018). Self-management approaches for diabetes include monitoring conditions, performing blood sugar tests, and controlling systems’ responses and tractions on foods or other external triggers (Rankin et al., 2018). The way adolescents and their parents deal with these practices is a data source for the experimental study that is crucial for considering limitations (Friis & Sellers, 2021). The strength of the recourses is that they have solid evidence behind them because of the numerous epidemiologic studies about diabetes conducted. The limitations are the subjective assumptions of participants and biases about the population that might influence the study results.
Diabetes requires continuous control and self-management, which can be challenging for adolescents. Their parents might severely influence the development of health controlling habits, and research can help support or deny that statement. The experimental randomized trial study design is the most appropriate because it provides a foundation to test a question and achieve objective results. Data sources for exploring diabetes are broad, and the limitations are related to biases about adolescents as a population.
References
Eva, J. J., Kassab, Y. W., Neoh, C. F., Ming, L. C., Wong, Y. Y., Abdul Hameed, M., Hong, Y. H., & Sarker, M. M. R. (2018). Self-care and self-management among adolescent T2DM patients: a review.Frontiers in Endocrinology, 9, 489.
Flannelly, K. J., Flannelly, L. T., & Jankowski, K. R. (2018). Threats to the internal validity of experimental and quasi-experimental research in healthcare. Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, 24(3), 107-130.
Friis, R. H., & Sellers, T. A. (2021). Epidemiology for public health practice (6th ed.). Jones & Bartlett.
Rankin, D., Harden, J., Barnard, K., Bath, L., Noyes, K., Stephen, J., & Lawton, J. (2018). Barriers and facilitators to taking on diabetes self-management tasks in pre-adolescent children with type 1 diabetes: a qualitative study.BMC Endocrine Disorders, 18(1), 1-9.