Maternal knowledge, coping strategies, and metabolic control of children with type 1 diabetes

Background Trends of type 1 diabetes have increased among Egyptian children in the past two decades. Managing a child with type 1 diabetes is a great challenge for parents especially when the child is not developmentally able to manage the disease independently. This study aimed to determine level of diabetes-specific knowledge among diabetic children's mothers, measure maternal diabetes-related stress, identify diabetes-related maternal coping strategies, and to examine the effect of maternal diabetes-specific knowledge, maternal diabetes-related stress, and their adopted coping strategy on glycemic control of their children. A cross-sectional study was conducted in outpatient clinic for diabetic children at a university hospital in Cairo, Egypt. One hundred and four mothers of diabetic children were recruited. Diabetes-specific knowledge was measured by Modified Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire. Diabetes-related stress and coping strategies were measured by the Ways of Coping Questionnaire. Glycosylated hemoglobin level was obtained from medical records. Results 61.5% of mothers had good diabetes-specific knowledge; however, 45.2% had high levels of diabetes-related stress. The most common adopted maternal coping strategy was acceptance of child's illness (71.6%). Glycosylated hemoglobin level in diabetic children was negatively correlated with positive and wishful thinking (p = 0.042 and p = 0.010 respectively) and acceptance of illness (p = 0.002), while positively correlated with cognitive restructuring (p = 0.007). Conclusions Health education to train mothers to adopt positive coping strategies might maintain a better glycemic control in diabetic children in similar settings.