Maintaining care and establishing a routine are two basic points in the lives of patients with type 1 diabetes. However, these are not always simple objectives to achieve in minors, which make up most of those affected by this type of pathology.That is why a team of researchers from the UT Southwestern Medical Center, in Dallas, United States, has developed a study that demonstrates that the care of a pet improves the control and surveillance of the disease and, with it, glucose levels inblood.
"Teenagers are one of the populations of patients most difficult to treat, mainly because of the many psychosocial factors associated with that stage of life," explains the main author of the report, Olga Gupta, who emphasizes that "regular care ofAn animal significantly improves the A1C hemoglobin levels in children. ”
When developing the study, whose results are published in the magazine the educator in Diabetes, the experience of 28 children between 10 and 17 years with diabetes mellitus type 1 has been analyzed. All of them received a small fish, as well as theInstructions for your care and a fishbowl that, if possible, should be installed in the child's room.
In the plan the little ones were instructed to take the pet (two, one in the morning and another at night) coincided with the verification of the blood sugar level.In addition, it was requested that, once a week, the water of the container would be changed and, on the same day, check and review the glucose levels together with the caregiver.
After three months, the A1C levels of the intervention group were reduced by 0.5 percent compared to their peers in the control group, which experienced a 0.8 percent increase at such levels.While this decrease was observed at all ages, the benefits of behavioral intervention were more pronounced in the youngest participants in the study.
“The decrease was higher in adolescents between 10 and 13 years.Children in this age group often seek the independence of their parents and were more willing to take care of the fish than some of the older ones, ”says Gupta, they take academic family in clinical care.
Jeanette Claxton, mother of a 12 -year -old participant, explains that "the two fish became part of the family and the child did not even realize that he talked more about the disease and that he was taking his sugar measures".CLIXTON is clear: "I would recommend this approach to other families, since it makes you owner, not only of fish, but of your own pathology."
Around 1.25 million children and American adults suffer from type 1 diabetes, according to the data of the American Diabetes Association.