GaDiaKi

Type 1 diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases in children and adolescents. Age-appropriate care is of central importance in order to meet the individual needs and requirements of young people.

The participants in the GaDiaKi project will develop and test new, age-appropriate and holistic diabetes training for children and adolescents. The new form of care aims to improve self-management, i.e. the children and young people's ability to deal with their illness on their own responsibility and their independence. Innovative features of the program include the everyday setting of the training (e.g. leisure facilities) and the involvement of young adults with type 1 diabetes, who support both the team and the children and young people. The researchers expect that this will improve the treatment satisfaction, independence and quality of life of children and adolescents with diabetes.

In order to test the effectiveness of the concept, children and adolescents throughout Germany will be trained in groups of 15 to 20 for five to seven days by an interprofessional team from the fields of pediatric and adolescent diabetology, psychology, social pedagogy and nutritional counseling, among others. The same number of children and adolescents receive standard treatment. At six-month intervals, the groups are compared with each other, for example in terms of treatment satisfaction, concern about hypoglycaemia and the number of inpatient admissions of children and adolescents. The project is being funded for three years with a total of around 4.4 million euros.

If successful, the results will contribute to improving the care of children and adolescents with diabetes through age-appropriate care and diabetes self-management.