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Diabetes ‘coach’ may help diabetic teenagers

Sunday, 4 November 2007


NEW YORK Nov 3(Reuters): A "personal trainer" can enhance an adolescent's motivation and capability of managing diabetes, according to a randomized trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Tonja R. Nansel, at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues developed a program to provide young type 1, or "insulin-dependent," diabetics with one-on-one interaction with a facilitator to improve self-monitoring, goal-setting, and problem-solving.
The facilitators were called "personal trainers" to "emphasize the development of strengths rather than the amelioration of deficits," the researchers explain in a report in the medical journal Diabetes Care.