Disordered eating in women with type 1 diabetes: Continuous glucose monitoring reveals the complex interactions of glycaemia, self-care behaviour and emotion

Objectives Glycaemia in people with type 1 diabetes and disordered eating is not well characterised. We explored the glycaemia, self-care behaviour and emotional state of women with type 1 diabetes and disordered eating. Research design and methods Thirteen women with and ten without disordered eating and type 1 diabetes participated in this case-control study. We used a mixed-methods approach with a 7-day blinded continuous glucose monitoring and real-time record of non-prompted capillary glucose, emotion, activity, and physical symptoms on a diabetes diary using a smartphone application (mySugr®). We compared groups using Mann-Whitney U test or Fisher's exact test. We conducted thematic analyses of free text diary entries (NVivo®) and quantitative analysis of emotion/ symptom tags. Results People with type 1 diabetes and disordered eating spent longer time above range in level 2 hyperglycaemia (>13.9 mmol/L, Median [Interquartile range]: 21% [16,60] vs 5% [2,17], p=0.015). They had lower time in range and similar time below range compared to those without disordered eating. The standard deviation of capillary glucose was significantly higher in the disordered eating group (4.7 mmol/L [4.5, 6.1] vs 3 [2.8, 3.2], p=0.018). The median of the percentage of rising trends was three times higher in the disordered eating group. They also had higher negative emotional and physical symptoms associated with high blood glucose (>15 mmol/L). Conclusions Disordered eating has a significant impact on the glycaemia and emotion of a person with type 1 diabetes.