Early Results of an Innovative Scalable Digital Treatment for Diabetes Distress in Families of School-Age Children with Type 1 Diabetes.

objectiveThis paper reports on the initial outcomes of a new mHealth intervention to reduce diabetes distress (DD) in families of school-age children living with type 1 diabetes (T1D) entitled, 'Remedy to Diabetes Distress' (R2D2).

methodsWe randomized 34 families (mean child age = 10 ± 1.4 years; 53% male, 85% White, mean HbA1c = 7.24 ± 0.71%) to one of three delivery arms differing only by number of telehealth visits over a 10-week period: zero visits = self-guided (SG), three visits = enhanced self-guided (ESG), or eight visits = video visits (VV). All families had 24 × 7 access to digital treatment materials for 10 weeks. We examined the feasibility and acceptability of R2D2. We used the Problem Areas in Diabetes-Child (PPAIDC and PAIDC, parent and child, respectively) to examine treatment effects by time and delivery arm. We performed sensitivity analyses to characterize families who responded to R2D2.

resultsIt was feasible for families to access R2D2 mHealth content independently, though attendance at telehealth visits was variable. Parents and children reported high satisfaction scores. There were significant pre-post reductions in PPAIDC (

conclusionsInitial results support the acceptability and treatment effects of R2D2 regardless of the frequency of adjunctive virtual visits. Characterizing responders may help to identify families who could benefit from R2D2 in the future.