Clinical Research Directory

Multicenter Study Evaluating the Relationship Between Perceived Daily Stress Level and Glycemic Level in Subjects With Type 1 Diabetes

Sponsor: Centre d'Etudes et de Recherche pour l'Intensification du Traitement du Diabète

Summary

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) affects around 200,000 people in France. The only treatment is insulin, administered either by multiple injections, by pump alone or, more recently, by automated insulin delivery systems (AIDs), which have resulted in a very significant improvement in glycaemic control and quality of life. These closed-loop (CL) devices are capable of effectively regulating the conventional factors associated with glycaemic disturbance, namely dietary intake and physical activity. However, they do not account of stress, which some subjects with T1D perceive as a major disrupter of their blood sugar levels. One of the reasons for this is undoubtedly that stress, unlike diet or physical activity, cannot be anticipated. Since stress is difficult to predict, it is also more difficult to study. Its onset, intensity, duration and progression are linked to the subject's experience, psychological state and environment. Not all patients respond to stress triggers in the same way. Some patients appear to be more reactive than others to these agents, particularly when they are exposed to them chronically or repeatedly, in an anxiety-provoking environment. This is known as chronic psychosocial stress, and it is this type of stress that seems to be most closely associated with glycaemic disturbance in subjects with T1D, most often in the form of hyperglycaemia and, more rarely, hypoglycaemia. However, there are no solid epidemiological or experimental data to support these observations. The study we propose is a prospective multicentre clinical trial in 125 subjects with T1D treated with insulin pumps or multi-injections at 14 French university centres. Our aim is to evaluate the relationship between interstitial glucose levels measured by CGM and perceived stress, assessed 4 times a day, away from mealtimes in order to avoid the impact of dietary glycaemia, using a "stressometer". This stressometer is an application designed by CERITD that can be downloaded to the patient's smartphone and consists of an electronic visual analogue scale (VAS) on which the level of stress felt is evaluated quantitatively (continuous value between 0 and 10).

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