The daily management of blood glucose levels for patients with type 1 diabetes involves a variety of tasks that are at times, visible to others.
Disclosing one’s type 1 diabetes diagnosis can also attract negative judgments and false assumptions about the disease.
Many adolescents with type 1 diabetes report feeling self-conscious about managing their diabetes in public and more than 60 per cent of adolescents with type 1 diabetes report experiencing diabetes-related stigma.
There is emerging evidence that the experience of diabetes-related stigma may lead to avoidance of self-management behaviours and in turn, negatively impact glycaemic control.
The aim of this study is to further explore the experience of stigma in adolescents with type 1 diabetes and determine if coping style mediates the relationship between experiences of stigma and both diabetes self-management and glycaemic control.