An exploration of parents' views of managing their children's type one diabetes with insulin pumps: a qualitative study and clinical research portfolio

Background: Insulin pumps have the potential to improve glycaemic control and health in childhood type 1 diabetes (T1D) but they require intensive monitoring and their impact on parental quality of life (QoL) is less well understood. Aims: To explore the views of parents who manage their children’s T1D with insulin pumps, with a particular focus on the impact of this method of insulin delivery on parental QoL. Method: A qualitative, cross-sectional study was conducted. Seven parents with a child aged 12 or younger with T1D, who have used the insulin pump, were recruited using purposive, volunteer sampling. Semi structured interviews were carried out and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Results: Four super-ordinate themes describe parents’ experiences adjusting to caring for their child using an insulin pump; ‘life before the pump’, ‘transition to the pump’, ‘life on the pump’, and the ‘perceived impact for their child’. Each super-ordinate theme comprised several sub-themes, and a concept that crossed all themes was ‘fluctuating feelings of control’. Conclusions: Parents were generally positive about using the insulin pump to care for their child with T1D, and most wished to continue with this method of insulin delivery. Parents faced challenges at particular times with the pump, but with support regained control over difficult aspects of pump use. Understanding parents’ experiences will assist diabetes teams to implement care practices centred on the needs of the family