The Effect of the Family-Centered Empowerment Model on Family Functioning in Type 1 Diabetic Children: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Background: The family-centered empowerment model seems to be effective in empowering the patient and engaging family members in identifying the patient’s care needs and cooperating with the patient to control diabetes and its complications. Objectives: The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of the family-centered empowerment model on family functioning in children with type 1 diabetes. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 80 primary caregivers of children with type 1 diabetes admitted to the diabetes clinic of Hazrat Ali Asghar (AS) Hospital in Zahedan, southeast Iran, in 2021. The diabetic children were selected using convenience sampling, and then the participants were equally classified by the random block method and were assigned to 2 groups (intervention and control groups). The data were collected using the family assessment device (FAD) and a demographic information form. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to assess the effectiveness of the training intervention by modifying the effect of some quantitative variables. The significance level in this study was set at 0.05 (P = 0.05) using SPSS version 26. Results: The mean age of the children was 8.95 ± 2.18 years in the intervention group and 9.10 ± 1.97 years in the control group (P = 0.75). The mean family functioning scores were not significantly different between the intervention and control groups before the intervention. However, the 2 groups showed a significant difference in terms of family functioning scores one and a half and 3 months after the intervention (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Teaching family members about disease control can be very useful because there is a strong connection between the family and the health status of its members. People, especially those with chronic diseases, are dependent on their family members, and even their attitudes are affected by the family.