King's College London

Type 2 diabetes in youth (those aged 25 years and under) is increasing and they are a high priority population due to their elevated risk of diabetes complications and deficits in care delivery/access. With funding from Partnership Southwark, we have been working with local clinical teams to co-design with young people a psychoeducational programme to address their needs.

Self-care activation is the main goal of the programme as diabetes involves managing diet, physical activity and often taking medication to reduce health risks.

The aim is to understand the experiences of participating in a programme for young adults with Type 2 diabetes and explore potential health impacts, considering:

1. Participants’ experiences of diabetes before participating in the programme
2. The experience of participating in the programme
3. The impact of the programme (psychosocially and clinically)
4. How the programme could be improved

This project is part of the 'Careforce' cluster within King’s Better Health & Care Futures.

This project uses semi-structured interviews and a descriptive review of anonymised medical notes.

We will produce:

• An optimised programme
• An account of the experienced psychosocial impacts of the programme, feasibility (reach, participation, acceptability) and clinical outcomes (weight, glycaemia, and care engagement)
• A research paper