International researchers, from the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain, work together to create a application that improves the physical and emotional well-being of patients with Diabetes Mellitus Type 1 (DM1). The result will be the app ‘MyDiaMate’a self-management aid tool to strengthen the mental health of adults with this disease, in search of an improvement in their quality of life.
The Malaga University is in charge of leading this project in Spain. Specifically, the professor of the Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment María Teresa Anarte will coordinate the study, in which researchers from the Regional University Hospital (HRU) and Ibima-Plataforma Bionand also participate.
“This disease requires a different lifestyle for those who suffer from it, with changes in their routines, which forces them to be always on alert”has explained the professor of the Faculty of Psychology and Speech Therapy of the UMA, who uses the expression ‘distress’ to refer to the anguish and anxiety that self-care produces in patients diabetes. Anarte added that “people with diabetes double the percentage of chances of having depression. Therefore, psychological support is essential for these patients.”
Thus, the ultimate goal of the project, which will be developed over the next 4 years, is to determine the effectiveness of ‘MyDiaMate’ over time. To do this, they have received a economic injection of one million euros by the JDRF, the world’s leading organization that funds research into this type of diabetes.
Check changes in emotional well-being, fatigue and diabetes self-care activities, as well as the glycemic control and use of services mental health of the participants, compared to usual care is another of the purposes of this study. Finally, it will try to establish a user profile for the application, to know who would benefit most from ‘MyDiaMate’.
This international project is led by Dr. Frank Snoek of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In Malaga, under the coordination of the UMA professor María Teresa Anarte, the following are participating: the head of the Endocrinology and Nutrition Service, Gabriel Olveira, and the coordinator of the Diabetes Unit of the Endocrinology and Nutrition Service, María Soledad Ruiz de Adana , both from the Malaga HRU; in addition to the researcher at the University of Malaga Mónica Carreira. The entire scientific team is part of the Ibima-Plataforma Bionand research group ‘Endrocrinology and Nutrition, Diabetes and Obesity’.