My Diabetes and Me Social Media Campaign
The University of Glasgow have now launched the Social Media Campaign today of the My Diabetes and Me Study.
Aim of the study: We want to find the best way to help people with a learning disability who have Type 2 Diabetes. We will test whether a structured education programme that focuses on managing diabetes and maintaining healthier lifestyles (diet, exercise) helps people with a learning disability to manage their blood sugar and to stay healthier in the future.
Background to the research: People with a learning disability are more likely to develop Type 2 Diabetes. They tend to develop it at a younger age and are less likely to have access to appropriate support that would help them to manage the condition. This may make it more likely that they will have other health problems, such as heart or kidney disease and strokes, and die younger.
What are we going to do? We have adapted an education programme called DESMOND-ID, which is about Type 2 diabetes and is suitable for adults with a mild/moderate learning disability and their carers/partners/advocates. The programme lasts 7 weeks, two and a half hours per week, followed by two booster sessions at 1 and 3 months, delivered in the persons local community. The adult with the learning disability and their carer/partner/advocate are encouraged to attend each session together where possible.
We want to see the effects off the DESMOND-ID education programme on people’s diets, physical activity, and diabetes control (blood sugar). To test the programme, we will conduct a randomised control trial. We want to recruit 450 adults with a learning disability who have Type 2 Diabetes, from across Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England. With each persons’ permission, half will be randomly chosen to receive the DESMOND-ID education programme while the others continue with their usual care.
We will measure everyone’s blood sugar (HbA1c) when they are recruited and twice more later in the study and give each person a £10 voucher as a thank-you at each of the three time points. We will then compare the results for the people allocated to the programme and those in the control group. We will also compare other things between the groups, such as blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, and health and wellbeing measures; and carry out an economic evaluation to see if DESMOND-ID is good value for money.
We would like to recruit between 36-48 adults with a learning disability and Type 2 diabetes who live in the NHS Lothian area.
We need your help: We are now seeking your help with identifying suitable potential participants and we are hoping that you may be able to assist with this process. To be eligible, participants are required to have a mild/moderate learning disability and type 2 diabetes, aged over 18yrs, live in the community, have reasonable communication to engage in a group education programme and give their consent. It’s important the person with a learning disability is given the choice to decide whether to participate or not.
If you or your staff are aware of any service users who match these criteria, we would like you to talk to the person about the study using the information booklet attached. If the person is interested, then they can complete the reply slip (attached and e-mailing this to the research team) who can arrange to meet the person and their carer/partner/advocate in an agreed venue to talk them through the study before they decide to consent to take part in the study.
The attached information can be circulated amongst your team, including: