Recommendations for age-appropriate education of children and adolescents with diabetes and their parents in the European Union

Education is the keystone of diabetes care, and structured self-management education is the key to a successful outcome. Existing guidelines provide comprehensive guidance on the various aspects of education and offer general and organizational principles of education, detailed curricula at different ages and stages of diabetes, and recommendations on models, methods, and tools to attain educative objectives. The International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes guidelines give the most elaborate and detailed descriptions and recommendations on the practice of education, which other national guidelines address on specific aspects of education and care. The aim of the work package on education developed by Better Control in Paediatric and Adolescent Diabetes in the European Union: Working to Create Centers of Reference ( SWEET) project was not to generate new guidelines but to evaluate how the existing guidelines were implemented in some pediatric diabetes reference centers. The SWEET members have completed a questionnaire that elaborates on the many aspects of delivery of education. This survey highlights a profound diversity of practices across centers in Europe, in terms of organization as well as the practices and the content of initial and continuing education. A toolbox is being developed within SWEET to facilitate exchanges on all aspects of education and to establish a process of validation of materials, tools, written structured age-adjusted programs, and evaluation procedures for the education of children and adolescents with diabetes.