Evaluation of Bertieonline for people with type 1 diabetes
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluation of effectiveness of Bertieonline as an education tool for people with type 1 diabetes.
IRAS ID
221407
Contact name
Helen Partridge
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Royal Bournemouth & Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Research Summary:
Type 1 diabetes is a complex chronic disease requiring a high degree of specialist knowledge to self-manage the condition to prevent long term complications such as retinopathy, neuropathy and nephropathy.
Self-management depends on learning the skills necessary for day to day fluctuations in blood glucose levels. Traditionally structured education courses for type 1 diabetes are group sessions and occur over 4 or 5 days which requires significant commitment to attend.
Bournemouth Hospital Diabetes department devised the Bertie course in the 1990’s with audited outcomes on benefit in terms of improvement in overall diabetes control, reduction in hypoglycaemia and improvement in patient wellbeing.
In 2016 we upgraded our online platform offering structured education for people with type 1 diabetes and Bertieonline (www.bertieonline.org.uk) was launched nationally. Bertieonline is a free resource open to anyone with an interest in type 1 diabetes –patients, carers, healthcare professionals, teachers etc and follows the Bertie curriculum offering the same high quality evidence based education which can be completed at home by anyone with internet access.The aim of this study is to ascertain whether we can demonstrate benefit in terms of improvement in quality of life, hypoglycaemia and overall diabetes control by use of the online platform.
We aim to recruit 100 people who have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes for more than 12 months. Participants may or may not have completed the formal education course in the past and will be invited via posters in the department, verbal communication and letter. After consent we will collect baseline variables before inviting people to complete the online course, recollecting variables at 3 months, 6 months and 12 months via a face to face or phone questionnaire. Completion of the 3 modules will be demonstrated by achievement of the certificate built into the program.
Summary of Results:
Due to unforeseen issues with the data collection for the study and the amount of missing data, unfortunately no analysis was able to take place. The CI worked with a statistician to try to ascertain results, however the dataset was too incomplete. We have since tightened sponsorship processes and staff training to ensure this isn't repeated.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/YH/0200
Date of REC Opinion
28 Jun 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion