Vanhemman arki tyypin 1 diabetesta sairastavan lapsen kanssa

Type 1 diabetes in children is a complex, demanding and challenging disease that requires continuous treatment. In Finland, type 1 diabetes has the highest prevalence in the world, but little research has been done on its impact on parents' daily lives in Finland. The aim of the study is to describe the everyday life of parents who have a child with type 1 diabetes. The data for the study was collected through open-ended individual interviews with parents (n=11) in two wellbeing services counties. The data were analyzed using inductive content analysis. The results indicate that the parent’s daily life was the parent and child growing together with a long-term illness, which meant working through a new life path resulting from the child’s illness over a long period and adapting diabetes to the life of the whole family. The parent acted as a pillar of support and a sustaining force in the child’s life. They accepted the surrounding environment’s varying attitudes toward the child's diabetes. Parent daily life was an attachment to the child's self-care, which meant that the parent was responsible for the self-care that sustained the child's life and that the parent and child were closely linked by diabetes. The parent used coping tools in everyday life, including tools to facilitate self-care, tools to strengthen emotional well-being and, the parent's different attitude towards peer support. The study provided new insights into how having a child with type 1 diabetes fundamentally affects parents' daily lives. The results will help to better understand the need for parental support in society and the health care system and will help to develop multidisciplinary family-based self-care guidance and support in different settings.