Ehealth intervention to optimize adherence in late adolescents and young adults with type 1 diabetes: content development and preparing adoption

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is one of the serious health issues in adolescents and young adults (AYAs) in Qatar and other Gulf countries. AYAs need to adhere to a range of diabetes self-management behaviors including healthy diet, physical activity, insulin administration, and monitoring glucose levels. However, adherence to these behaviours is sub-optimal in this age group. Therefore, to improve diabetes self-management in AYAs, diabetes self-management education and support intervention are needed. An online intervention might be a promising solution for this age group in Qatar. However, this type of intervention does not exist in Qatar. Therefore, there is a need to inform the development of eHealth intervention in the Arab region. Before designing this intervention for this age group, the core content that should addressed in this intervention should be identified. For that, this thesis investigated the factors that influence adherence behaviours of adolescents and young adults with type 1 diabetes in an Arab context. These factors will be addressed in an eHealth intervention to enhance adherence behaviours and their factors in this age group. It also investigated what should be done to promote healthcare providers and the organization (hospitals and primary healthcare centres) to adopt this eHealth intervention in clinical practice.