Introduction & Objective: Peer support interventions in diabetes have the potential to offer emotional support, improve health-related outcomes, and be delivered virtually. However, attention is focused largely on the individuals who receive rather than those who deliver support. We describe the psychosocial profiles of peer mentors in a transition intervention trial for young adults with type 1 diabetes.
Methods: At enrollment, 29 peer mentors completed psychosocial measures (diabetes distress, T1D-specific quality of life, social support patterns), self-reported demographics, clinical data, and reasons for participating.
Results: The table presents summary statistics for peer mentor characteristics and psychosocial measures at enrollment. Key motivators for participating included: want to help young adults with diabetes (100%), want to give back (93%), transitioning was tough and I wanted to share information I learned (69%), I wish I had a mentor when transitioning (65%), opportunity to participate in research (45%), money (7%).
Conclusions: Desire to help others dominated peer mentors’ drive to participate. Heterogeneity in peer mentors’ diabetes-specific psychosocial functioning suggests the absence of a predominant peer mentor profile. These data may help guide efforts in implementing future peer mentor interventions.
M. Baudino: None. W. Levy: None. S.A. Carreon: None. R. Streisand: None. T.S. Tang: None. S. Lyons: None. S. Mckay: None. C.G. Minard: None. M.E. Hilliard: None.
National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease (1R01DK119246); National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease (3R01DK119246-03S1); JDRF (2-PDF-2022-1173-A-N).
