Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Diabetes is one of the most complex chronic health conditions of our time. Daily management of the disease as well as its acute and chronic complications requires a certain level of education; social media could play a role in disseminating appropriate information.

Objectives of the study: Evaluated the involvement of social media in the education of young people with type 1 diabetes.

Material and methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study, carried out at the endocrinology department-diabetology at Ibn Rochd University Hospital of Casablanca, of interest to young type 1 diabetics followed at the transition consultation. Results: Our study included 54 patients. The average age was 16.2 years with a female predominance of 62%. The duration of diabetes was 7.93±4.02 years. Mean HBA1c = 11.19±2.12%). 95% of our patients said they go to social media looking for information about their illness. The most searched subjects were: complications of diabetes in 67%, therapeutic perspectives in 45%, the pathophysiology of diabetes in 35%, diabetes and physical activity in 40%, the impact of diabetes on fertility in 16%. Our patients judged that the information acquired on social networks was useful in 89%.

Conclusions: Social media is widely used nowadays, and provides a valuable digital education tool providing an opportunity for medical staff to support diabetic patients by disseminating useful and authentic knowledge and information related to diabetes management and of its complications.