Self-Care Practices among Children and Adolescents with Diabetes: An Integrative Review

Background: Self-care is vital in the management of diabetes since it helps to prevent complications. A systematic review on Self-care Practices among children and adolescents with Diabetes at the nation-wide level has not been investigated.

Aim: This study aims to synthesise studies related to the practices of diabetes self-care among young children and adolescents.

Methods: PubMed/MEDLINE, Google Scholar databases and Science Direct Journal lists were searched and yielded a total of 19 articles that were used in this integrative literature review. The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), such as Diabetes, Self-care, Young Children, Adolescents, and Parents were used to identify studies conducted among children and adolescents and published in the English language from 2017 through to 2021. The checklist for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analysis (PRISMA) was followed to present the findings.

Results: Some review study participants struggled with self-care due to emotional disturbances in the diabetic child, these experiences included the child feeling different, the child experiencing distraction in everyday activities and the school staff's lack of education and inattention.

In the same vein, there was the transformative process of improvement of information in the social surroundings as the child/adolescents and their families tried to figure out how to cope with the complex environment. We identified two major categories of diabetes self-care practice based on self-care reported practices: "hurdles to diabetes self-Care practices" and "enablers to diabetes self-Care practices".

Conclusions: To improve adherence to recommended self-care practice in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D), health care practitioners can help enhance the enablers to diabetic self-care habits by arguing to policymakers on the necessity for the development of effective solutions for the challenges that this unique group faces.