Research

Researchers to study barriers to Type 1 diabetes self-management

Penn State College of Medicine has received a nearly $500,000 Type 1 Diabetes Targeted Research Award from the National Institutes of Health. The application was one of only two selected to receive funding.

The purpose of the grant is to study the barriers and facilitators to self-management of Type 1 diabetes in adults. Penn State Hershey’s Dr. Sean Oser, Heather Stuckey and Dr. Tamara Oser will conduct the project “Analyzing Patient Blog Use and Provider Perceptions to Identify Barriers and Facilitators to Type 1 Diabetes Self-Management: An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study.”

They will review and analyze the content of blogs written by and for adults with Type 1 diabetes. The researchers are tapping into a large amount of data that already exists in the public domain, which will be faster and less expensive than conducting interviews with the same number of people.

“By identifying the barriers and facilitators of Type 1 diabetes self-management, we can come up with better interventions, which NIH has identified as a priority area of research,” Sean Oser said.  

Stuckey added, “The breadth and depth of qualitative data will give us insights into what peoples’ experiences with diabetes are like on an everyday basis.” 

Work on this project will continue through September 2016. After data are collected, the investigators will examine ways to use the collected data in interventions and further analyses to maximize the use of social support for Type 1 diabetes.

Last Updated October 29, 2014

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