Balancing parental involvement with adolescent friendly health care in teenagers with diabetes: Are we getting it right?

Abstract

Purpose Current guidance about adolescent-friendly health care emphasizes the benefits of seeing young people alone for confidential consultations. Yet in young people with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), parental involvement has been shown to contribute to better diabetes control. This study aimed to better understand how these apparent tensions are reconciled in clinical practice by identifying how frequently adolescents with T1DM are seen alone and exploring parents' opinions about this. Methods A convenience sample of consecutive parents of adolescents (aged 12-21 years) with T1DM was recruited from the outpatient clinic of a specialist diabetes service and asked to complete a 30-item w..