EXTOD Education
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Supporting adults with Type 1 Diabetes to undertake exercise; Developing and piloting an education programme for exercise in Type 1 diabetes
IRAS ID
178659
Contact name
Robert Andrews
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN61403534
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 3 months, 30 days
Research summary
Exercising regularly has huge benefits for people with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) but less than 40% undertake regular exercise. People with T1DM say they do not exercise because they are scared of their blood sugars going low, and because they aren’t sure what changes to food and insulin-dose should be made when exercising to prevent this. We have shown that although almost all (96%) T1DM adults felt that education about nutritional adjustments for safe exercise was important, only one in five felt they had received this information. We also found that healthcare professionals (HCPs) feel ill-equipped to educate T1DM patients around exercise.\n\nWe will develop and test the UK’s first education programme for T1DM patients and HCPs to guide insulin and carbohydrate adjustment for safe and effective exercise. We will follow a recognised process (described by the Medical Research Council) to develop our intervention. Focus groups will be run with people with T1DM and with HCPs to gain views on the intervention. This information will then be used to develop the new programme. HCPs and people with T1DM in Bristol and Birmingham will be identified to test our new programme in groups of 8-10 people. This will help improve our intervention further. We will repeat this process three times to ensure we have the best programme. Next, 80 people with T1DM will be recruited and randomly put into 2 groups. One group will receive routine treatment for their diabetes, and the other will attend our education programme. At 6 months after completion of the course we will look at how well they are managing their diabetes around exercise. Findings from this study will help us design a larger study to test whether this programme would work throughout the UK.
REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/WM/0034
Date of REC Opinion
16 Mar 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion