Psychosocial Impact of the Bionic Pancreas During Summer Camp

Jill Weissberg-Benchell; Danielle Hessler; William H Polonsky; Lawrence Fisher

doi:10.1177/1932296816640289

Psychosocial Impact of the Bionic Pancreas During Summer Camp

J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2016 Jun 28;10(4):840-4. doi: 10.1177/1932296816640289. Print 2016 Jul.

Authors

Jill Weissberg-Benchell¹, Danielle Hessler², William H Polonsky³, Lawrence Fisher²

Affiliations

¹ Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA jwbenchell@luriechildrens.org.
² Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
³ Behavioral Diabetes Institute, Del Mar, CA, USA.

Abstract

Background: The psychosocial impact of the bionic pancreas (BP) was assessed among children attending diabetes camp.

Methods: Nineteen children were randomly assigned for 5 days to the BP condition and 5 days to the control condition in a crossover design.

Results: Significant reductions in hypoglycemic fear and regimen burden were found. Children felt less burdened or worried about diabetes and felt freer to do things they enjoyed while using the BP. Children wished the BP responded to out of range numbers faster and expressed annoyance about carrying around the necessary equipment.

Conclusions: Children may experience improved psychosocial outcomes following use of BP while expressing key areas of user concern. Future studies in less controlled environments with larger sample sizes can determine if these findings are generalizable to other groups.

Keywords: artificial pancreas; automated insulin delivery; bionic pancreas; diabetes camp; psychosocial.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

Child
Cross-Over Studies
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / blood*
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / drug therapy*
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / psychology*
Female
Humans
Male
Pancreas, Artificial / psychology*