Diabetes education in children and adolescents

The complete set of guidelines can be found at www.ispad.org.The evidence grading system used in the ISPAD Guidelines is the same as that used by the American Diabetes Association.See page 2 (the Introduction in Pediatric Diabetes 2009; 10 (Suppl.12): 1-2).Education is the keystone of diabetes care and structured self-management education is the key to a successful outcome.Adapted from (1) National pediatric guidelines emphasise the importance of education, but do not include specific chapters on education and educational principles (2-5).Publications which provide useful guidelines on education in diabetes include ''National Standards for diabetes self-management education (DSME)'' (6), ''Position statement on structured education'' (7), ''Guidance on the use of patient-education models for diabetes'' (8), the ''International Curriculum for Diabetes Health Professional Education'' (9) and a recent description of paediatric diabetes education in Germany (10).See end of text.A definition of Diabetes Education has been proposed:''The process of providing the person with the knowledge and skills needed to perform diabetes selfcare, manage crises and to make lifestyle changes to successfully manage the disease''.(11) Education may be seen as an interface between clinical practice and research.Research into diabetes and educational methods is important in improving clinical practice (2,5,6,11,12) and this should be the responsibility of each nation / state and be a national priority (7,10,13).Educational programmes must be carefully planned, have specific aims and learning objectives, which are