UPMC Children’s Pediatric Endocrinology Team Receives Pittsburgh Foundation Grant to Study Efficacy of a Community-Based Diabetes Control Program
February 8, 2023
Congratulations to Radhika Muzumdar, MD, and Ingrid Libman, MD, PhD, from the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and Amy G. Nevin, MD, a pediatrician in the community with close links to UPMC Children's Hospital and a consultant with the Division, for receiving a grant from The Pittsburgh Foundation that will support further research evaluating the efficacy of an innovative community-based nutritional education program combined with routine care for its ability to improve glycemic control, changes in BMI, and dietary knowledge in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D).
The grant will allow the team to continue its clinical community outreach diabetes program partnership with Phipps Conservatory and its Let's Move Pittsburgh initiative to help children, adolescents, and their families with diabetes learn important nutritional and diabetes management approaches.
The initial program developed by UPMC Children’s and Phipps Conservatory included virtual cooking classes during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The program included 25 adolescents, ages 11 to 16 with T1D, 20% of whom were Black or biracial and approximately 30% that experience some degree of socio-economic disadvantage.
After attending the program, nearly 90% completed an evaluation with 100% of respondents expressing being satisfied or very satisfied with the overall engaging quality of the program. 100% and 90% respectively agreed or strongly agreed that the program increased their child’s interest in a healthy lifestyle and commitment to healthy eating.
The new grant will allow the team to evaluate the potential medical benefits of the program as it is expanded to include more participants. Youth with T1D (12 to 17 years of age) who are also overweight (body mass index (BMI) > 85th percentile) will be invited to participate and enroll in the program.
The program will consist of two classes monthly (in person or if needed, virtual) for three months, alongside the individual’s routine diabetes care. Pre- and post-program assessments will be conducted to include metrics of glycemic control (hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and continuous glucose monitor (CGM) parameters), clinical parameters such as weight and BMI, measurements of lipids, questionnaires on dietary knowledge, and quantity and quality of food consumption based on food logs.
The team expects that children who participate in the program will show improvement in their diabetes control, a favorable decrease or maintenance of their weight and BMI when compared to their pre-intervention visit and to the control group being used for the study, and improved knowledge about nutrition and healthy food choices when comparing pre- and post-intervention assessments.
Read more about some of the recent community-based and patient/family-centric programs the Division has developed for children and adolescents with diabetes.
