THURS-045 - Resource Recommendations Needed for College Students with Type 1 Diabetes to Achieve Health Equity

Brief Abstract Summary: Discover barriers experienced by full-time college students living with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) enrolled in five different 4-year Southeastern universities in the United States. Participants requested nutritional support from their university, emphasized that T1D should be destigmatized, and identified the need for additional support from the healthcare system. College students living with T1D wanted their university dining hall to be more transparent about nutritional facts for meals served and allow the opportunity to consult with nutritional professionals. Participants felt isolated due to the general population’s limited T1D knowledge and were afraid that receiving appropriate medical and social support would be scarce. Additionally, participants were overwhelmed with navigating the healthcare system pertaining to health insurance and needed more guidance on sustaining chronic disease management. More advocacy is needed in the university, public, and healthcare settings.

Detailed abstract description: Previous research has shown that college students living with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) experience barriers that impact their self-management. However, limited studies have qualitatively explored resource recommendations needed to reduce barriers and improve health equity for full-time college students living with T1D. Therefore, this study involved conducting one-on-one interviews with 31 college students enrolled in five large four-year universities in the Southeastern United States. Mean age was 20.13 years (SD = 1.28), most self-identified as White (n = 27), classified as a senior (n=10), and identified as a woman (n = 18). Mean time living with T1D was 7.94 (SD = 1.29) years. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview guide to explore the research question, 'What resources do full-time college students living with Type 1 Diabetes need to improve their self-management?' Most interviews (n=27) were conducted on Zoom; the remaining interviews occurred in-person. Interview transcripts were transcribed verbatim and uploaded into NVivo for data management. Data analysis included two coders reviewing the interview transcripts to identify prominent themes. A third coder was available to discuss coding discrepancies. The research team identified three themes, which included 1) Increase University Dining Support, 2) Decrease Type 1 Diabetes Stigma, and 3) Improve Healthcare System Support. Participants discovered challenges with regulating their blood sugar levels due to limited nutritional information provided by their dining hall, which caused hyperglycemia episodes and inaccurate insulin dosing. University dining halls should consider making nutritional facts of the meals served accessible and enable access to consult with nutritional specialists to minimize insulin administration and high blood sugar concerns. College students with T1D were also concerned with the general public's limited knowledge about T1D and felt that they received decreased medical and social support due to the public's misconceptions of living with an autoimmune condition. Therefore, more awareness through education is needed for the public about T1D and ways to provide medical and social support for individuals with T1D. Also, participants reported low literacy about their health insurance and requested additional patient education support to sustain health literacy and self-management behaviors. Healthcare facilities could consider providing courses long-term to improve and sustain literacy about health insurance, carbohydrate counting, and ways to overcome management challenges. Despite the complexities of managing T1D as a full-time college student, advocacy is still needed in university, public, and healthcare settings to improve health equity.