# Effectiveness Trial of an E-Health Intervention To Support Diabetes Care in Minority Youth

> **NIH NIH R01** · WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $605,919

## Abstract

The deterioration in diabetes self-management (DSM) and metabolic control associated with the adolescent
developmental period is well known. African American adolescents with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) are at even
higher risk for such problems. Research has shown that parenting behaviors such as parental monitoring of
adolescent completion of daily diabetes care are critical predictors of youth DSM. Low levels of parental
monitoring are even more likely to result in poor DSM among youth with T1D from minority or low income
homes. Few studies targeting adolescents have demonstrated that behavioral interventions can improve DSM
or metabolic control, and no clinical trials have focused exclusively on African American youth. Furthermore,
there have been no published clinical trials of interventions that have targeted parental monitoring of daily
diabetes care as a means of improving DSM in adolescents. Computer-delivered, brief interventions have
shown promising effects in a number of areas of behavioral health care and may also increase the accessibility
of behavioral health interventions to minority families. Our group has recently conducted a pilot efficacy trial to
test a brief, three session, computer intervention aimed at increasing parental motivation for supervision and
monitoring among caregivers of young, African American adolescents who are beginning to transition to
independent self-care. Although the intervention was designed for delivery in diabetes clinics at regularly
scheduled appointments, for the purpose of our efficacy pilot, it was delivered either in the clinic or in the home
if the family missed their scheduled clinic appointment. Results from the efficacy study suggested that
caregivers who received the intervention had significantly higher monitoring of their adolescent’s daily diabetes
management. Adolescents whose caregivers received the intervention had significant improvements in
metabolic control compared to controls. The purpose of the proposed study is to conduct a multicenter,
randomized effectiveness trial of the intervention with 212 African American adolescents with T1D and their
primary caregivers recruited from pediatric endocrinology clinics across the United States. A Hybrid 1 design
will be used, allowing implementation science questions about barriers/facilitators to intervention adoption in
real world pediatric diabetes care clinics to be addressed. Caregiver-adolescent dyads will be randomly
assigned to one of two study arms: caregiver motivational computer intervention for parental monitoring of
diabetes care or caregiver attention control. The intervention will be delivered at three consecutive clinic
appointments occurring over 12 months but will only be delivered in the diabetes clinic to determine if the
intervention can improve DSM and health outcomes under real world, effectiveness conditions. Dose effects
and moderators of treatment outcomes will also be evaluated. If successful, the intervention has the...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9910386
- **Project number:** 5R01DK110075-04
- **Recipient organization:** WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** DEBORAH A. ELLIS
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $605,919
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-04-01 → 2022-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9910386

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9910386, Effectiveness Trial of an E-Health Intervention To Support Diabetes Care in Minority Youth (5R01DK110075-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9910386. Licensed CC0.

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