Psychosocial Experience of Parents of Children, Adolescents and Young Adults with Type 1 Diabetes in Brazzaville

Abstract

Type 1 diabetes is one of the main chronics pathologies in children. Efficient care requires a good knowledge of the disease by the parents, and an exploration of psychosocial experience of the parents, who are on the front lines of the support. Objectives: Assess the impact of parents’ level of knowledge, from their psychosocial experience and from the quality of life on the glycemic control of children, adolescents and young adults with type 1 (DT1) diabetes in Brazzaville. Patients and Methods: This was an analytical cross-sectional study with prospective data collection during 7 months at Brazzaville University Hospital CHU, involving 103 parents. We studied socio-demographic variables, the balance of children’s diabetes by glycated hemoglobin, parents’ knowledge of diabetes by questionnaire “Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Center’s Revised Diabetes Knowledge Test”. The assessment of anxiety and depression through the “Hospital Anxiety and Depression” (HAD) score. Parental stress was assessed by the “Pediatric Inventory for Parents” (PIP). Results: We reported certain anxiety symptomatology in 60 parents (58.3%). Certain depression was reported in 63 parents (61.2%), and a lesser degree of parental distress. These psychosocial disorders in the parents did not influence the glycemic balance of the children. Low socio-economic level of the family (p = 0.001), poor knowledge about diabetes (p = 0.046) and poorer quality of life (p < 0.001) are the causes of parental distress in our study. Conclusion: Psychosocial disorders were well observed in parents of DT1 children.