Lifestyle, nutritional knowledge and fears of a group of adolescents suffering from type 1 diabetes

Diet, physical activity and insulin therapy are the basics for type 1 diabetes treatment, contributing to maintaining proper blood glucose levels and reducing the chronic complications’ risks. Lifestyle modification may be efficient although difficult for adolescents trying to learn diabetes self-management that interferes with evWe examined the nutritional habits (section C) and the physical activity level (section D) with a questionnaire in 47 diabetic patients (30 males), mean age 15.6 years (S.D. ± 3.13). Finally a series of questions were proposed to investigate fears related to diabetes self-management (section E).Compared to the Italian guidelines for healthy eating, common mistakes were: • skipping breakfast (25%) • avoiding fruit and/or vegetables every day (20%) • not consuming fish weekly (30%) • regular processed meat eating (45%) • regular ) sweets and snacks eating (or picking up) (15%). A score for each questionnaire section was calculated for each participant. The mean score of the whole sample responses was compared to those of a healthy control sample, same age: section C score was higher than controls (34.4 ± 4.6 vs 29.0 ± 5.0; p<0.05), while section D score was almost the same (11.2 ± 3.5 vs 11.0 ± 3.0; p=n.s.). Lastly, the section E score, in the diabetes sample, was significantly higher in those subjects who had a better metabolic control (HbA1C < 8%). Eating with diabetes is not so much different than the way most people should eat. Adoption of healthy eating and lifestyle should be encouraged, in order to keep an adequate metabolic control remembering that the teenagers tend to make the same mistakes of their healthy fellows. A multidisciplinary approach, as well as an active involvement of the patient, is the best cure for type 1 diabetes.