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Type 1 diabetes & Psychosocial aspects study

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M

M.Diriye

New Member
Dear All,

My name is Mahamed Diriye. I am a current final year undergraduate psychology student & an affiliate member of the Chronic Illness Research Team at the University of East London. Me & 2 colleagues are currently engaged in & conducting a research study in to individuals with type 1 diabetes & psychosocial aspects of life. The study has received ethical approval from the University?s ethics committee & the admin on this forum has also approved our request to post the study.

The purpose of this research study is to assess the relation of the psychosocial variables in type 1 diabetic individuals. It aims to discover how these variables inter-relate & what can be predicted & determined by looking at their relationship. For instance, if results seem to suggest that 1 variable seems to be able to influence & moderate the other variables (to a significant extent), it may trigger the case for more emphasis to be on that aspect in individuals with type 1 diabetes. We are excited about this piece of research and its development and we do have the aim of having it published so it can contribute to other research in this area.

Participants would need to complete 5 short questionnaires which we hope will not take up much of your time. We are happy to share results with you if you are interested & all data will be kept strictly confidential.

The only requirement for participants is that they must have type 1 diabetes and be aged over 18. We really would be grateful if anyone would like to take part.

Please private message me if you are interested in participating in the study or have any questions, queries or concerns regarding the study.

I?ll look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,
Mahamed Diriye.
 
Mahamed, it might be a good idea to clarify what the research is about, as not everyone will be familiar with the academic terminology you are using. For example, what are 'psycho-social variables'? A layman's explanation would be appreciated and may result in more responses 🙂
 
I've responded by PM. It will be interesting to find out what the research is about but I'm generally open to anything.:D

Rob
 
I am interested in taking part in the study however I do not have a clue what you're talking about (and I have a degree in social sciences) lol please simplify your terminology 🙂
 
Is there an interpreter in the house? 🙄
 
Well it does; speaking as an adult when diagnosed, you suddenly discover that you aren't the same person as you were yesterday - or rather, you don't have the same life you had yesterday; the one you've grown to know and love and UNDERSTAND.

You are a character who someone has just chucked into the middle of an entirely different book with lots of new situations and people that you haven't met before. You haven't read any of the book before and nobody gives you a precis of the previous chapters.

Yet everyone 'outside' - people you did think you knew - rellies, friends, colleagues - expect you to carry on like nowt's happened and you are suddenly supposed to relate to these new people (your hospital team or whoever) and instantly trust them with your life because they appear to have control of it now, not you - and that's not nice .....

You are kinda like an adult duck who has hitherto been land-locked (no pond) and you've had your wings clipped so don't know ponds exist anyway - suddenly tipped out of a cosy padded duck-carrying basket (LOL) - apparently serenely floating on the pond on the surface but underneath the water, paddling like stink to try and gain some control over the new environment ... and learning how to co-habit with alien species like swans, geese and moorhens - that you never knew even existed hitherto ...... 😱

You do learn how to adapt of course - but is that because you simply HAVE to or because you WANT to? It's not a thing I ever choose to spend time analysing - I can't change it, so what's the point?

And it's taken me near enough 40 years to actually find the words to express that, Rob.

:D
 
There must be loads of issues it brings up.

I hope studies like this highlight the fact. Because, let's face it, no doctor or nurse is ever going to ask or even consider that side of things.

As you say, you cope and get on with it. I think it's because you have to. No one is going to make it go away and you're the one who has the nasty side effects if you don't do what you're meant to. So, cope you do.🙂

I find these questionnaires interesting in that they bring up topics that I might not have considered before. And hopefully they can enlighten the medical world to the impact of 'hidden' conditions.

Rob
 
Have sent PM.
 
Dear all,
Thank you very much for your responses. We are delighted with the immediate response we have had & hope it continues! I?ll attempt to elaborate (briefly) on the purpose of the study, what we hope results will suggest & some implications this may have.

What we refer to when we say ?psychosocial variables?, are aspects of a person & of life that may influence other aspects. Another definition may be the numerous psychological & social aspects of life that influence a person?s ability to manage daily functioning. Any aspects of society or the mind can be included. Things like a persons? relationships with others or hostility (social) & self-confidence/ self-esteem (from your psyche ? the mind). It?s a diverse term, which can encompass anything from social factors such as social support, to psychological factors such as mental well-being & your memory. The outlook on one aspect may very much depend on another aspect. For instance, optimism can be used as a psychosocial factor. How optimistic a person is may depend on the quality of their social support channels. If they have supportive, encouraging networks of people around them, they may be more of an optimistic person than the one who doesn?t have good social support networks. This doesn?t necessarily mean that NO social support means low optimism though. The individual may be a strong person who see?s everything as an opportunity to be taken.

What our study is about is studying some of these aspects in relation to type 1 diabetes. The reason we have kept it to type 1 diabetes is because people may experience type 1 & type 2 diabetes differently in regards to the aspects we are looking to study, which are: social support, illness intrusiveness, memory lapses & depression & anxiety. As much as we would like to expand the study to cover type 2 diabetic individuals, our short time-frame just doesn?t permit it.

By social support, we mean the belief that one is cared for & has assistance available from other people that are seen to be part of that persons? social network. Illness intrusiveness refers to the degree of undesirable interference to a persons? lifestyle & valued activities/ interests brought about by an illness and/ or its treatments. For instance, if you feel that you are not able to eat much of your favourite snack or are not able to go out & socialise with friends as much because of illness concerns, you may see it to be more intrusive on your life. There is a measure of illness intrusiveness included in the study & this may further clarify things. Memory lapses simply refers to slips in memory, for example forgetting to give someone a call, going upstairs & remembering you forgot to turn the heating off, going into a room & not remembering what you entered the room for. These memory lapses are in no way exclusive to individuals with diabetes, or anyone with any illness for that matter. Memory lapses occur in perfectly healthy individuals. One of the measures is on memory lapses, so this may also further clarify things a little.

The whole purpose of our study is to see how the above aspects are correlated in type 1 diabetic individuals. For instance, to what degree may a persons? social support channels influence the degree to which the illness is seen as intrusive? To what extent may the degree of memory lapses relate to illness intrusiveness & further influence a persons? depression & anxiety levels?

We hope that results will suggest some interesting links between the psychosocial aspects. If it does, it may give us a case to argue on that basis that ?aspect X? needs more emphasis because it could have a significant impact on ?aspect Y? etc. There is much more to an illness & much more to diabetes than what you can see. The implications such research can have is really significant, as it sheds more light on the experiences & perspectives of individuals with type 1 diabetes.

@trophywench: Your comment was really interesting to read! It?s experiences like that which drive my desire to keep discovering things & that was an amazing way of putting it.

@Robster65: What you just said highlights the importance of research 🙂

I do apologise for rambling on a bit. I hope this clarifies, even in the smallest part what the study is about. I?m not sure whether its much of a ?layman?s explanation? but please do message me with any questions, concerns or queries regarding the study.

We are still calling out to anyone who would like to part ? please come forward. If you have volounteered & we haven?t got back to you yet, we will do very soon. We are very grateful for your responses.

Kind regards,
Mahamed.
 
It sounds like you're delving where no man has dared to delve before Mahamed !:D

Thanks for the clarification. A lot of what you're suggesting certainly sounds relevant and hopefully may lead other researchers down a similar path.

Look forward to taking part.🙂

Rob
 
It's a shame it's just for adults (though fully understand why it has to be)

I know a certain 13 (going on 20) year old whose answers to your questions would be very interesting, I would think...

Trophywench - that is the best description of Dx I have heard ( and the analogy involving the duck made me smile because one of K's 'coping' mechanisms involve a duck - long story:D)

Hope the research goes well, will be interesting to see the results.
 
The duck was a metaphor !! LOL

But I used a duck because I thought Robster would relate to it, not to mention Copepod - you know, tailor your explanation to your audience, then they think they are special, which strokes their ego ! You're OK - I'm OK !

ROFLMAO 😉
 
trophywench said:
The duck was a metaphor !! LOL

But I used a duck because I thought Robster would relate to it, not to mention Copepod - you know, tailor your explanation to your audience, then they think they are special, which strokes their ego ! You're OK - I'm OK !

ROFLMAO 😉
Click to expand...

Oi !! I AM special ! The nice doctor told me I was 🙄

(transactional analysis perchance ?) 😛

Rob
 
TA? TA? not me mate, never heard of it 😉 Territorial Army, that is ......

Oh I'm so out of touch though, I said summat the other day about 'brainstorming' and my friend went no no no! - you mean Mind Mapping !

Well no, actually - I didn't mean that. I know how to brainstorm - but have absolutely no idea how to MM !
 
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