Young adults with type 1 diabetes reported feeling reduced to 'a set of data points' during clinical encounters, with healthcare interactions perceived as overemphasizing glycemic metrics at the expense of emotional support, contributing to feelings of inadequacy and worsening diabetes self-management.
Key Findings
Results
Healthcare encounters for young adults with T1D were perceived as overemphasizing glycemic metrics, which overshadowed the broader emotional and social dimensions of living with T1D.
Participants reported feeling reduced to 'a set of data points' during clinical encounters
This perceived overemphasis contributed to feelings of inadequacy
The focus on glycemic metrics was identified as exacerbating mental health challenges
Worsening of diabetes self-management was linked to these clinical encounter experiences
Results
Young adults with T1D conceptualized diabetes distress as an 'everyday' reality rather than an acute or episodic phenomenon.
This was identified as one of two main themes from the qualitative analysis
The framing of distress as chronic and ongoing rather than situational distinguishes participants' lived experience from how distress may be clinically assessed
This finding emerged from an interpretive descriptive design using in-depth interviews
19 participants aged 18-29 years were interviewed
Methods
The study used an interpretive descriptive qualitative design with 19 young adult participants living with T1D.
Participants were aged 18-29 years
Interviews were conducted as part of a co-design trial aimed at developing a mental health intervention for young adults with T1D
Two main themes were identified from the interview data
The co-design approach involved participants in shaping the research and intervention development
Results
Participants expressed a desire for healthcare professionals to ask about their emotional wellbeing during clinical encounters, captured in the statement 'I should have been asked how I was doing.'
This sentiment was significant enough to be used as the title of the study
The absence of emotional inquiry during routine care was identified as a gap in current diabetes management practices
Participants indicated that not being asked about wellbeing contributed to their sense of being reduced to clinical data rather than whole persons
Conclusions
The findings call for a holistic, strengths-based approach to diabetes care that integrates emotional support into routine clinical encounters.
The study emphasizes the importance of recognizing the complex interplay between physical and mental health
Authors call for a re-evaluation of current care practices
Integration of emotional support into routine diabetes care was identified as necessary to enhance quality of life
A strengths-based approach was recommended as an alternative to the metric-focused model participants described experiencing
What This Means
This research suggests that young adults aged 18 to 29 who live with type 1 diabetes often feel that their healthcare appointments focus almost entirely on blood sugar numbers and other measurable data, leaving little room for conversations about how they are actually feeling emotionally or socially. In interviews with 19 young adults, participants described feeling like they were treated as 'a set of data points' rather than as whole people, and many said they wished someone had simply asked how they were doing. This experience of being reduced to clinical metrics was linked to feelings of inadequacy and made both their mental health and their ability to manage their diabetes worse.
The research also found that diabetes-related distress — the emotional burden of living with a chronic condition requiring constant management — was not something these young adults experienced occasionally or in crisis moments, but rather as a constant, everyday reality woven into their lives. This is an important distinction because healthcare systems often screen for distress as though it were an acute problem with a clear onset, which may miss the persistent, background nature of how young people with T1D actually experience it.
This research suggests that routine diabetes care needs to be redesigned to include genuine emotional check-ins and to take a more holistic view of patients' lives. Rather than measuring success primarily through glycemic control, clinicians could be trained to ask open-ended questions about wellbeing and to recognize the psychological weight of managing a chronic illness from a young age. The study's findings were gathered as part of a collaborative project to develop a mental health intervention specifically for this age group, meaning the insights are intended to directly inform future care tools and approaches.
Whitmore C, Sherifali D, Mangialardi N, Mytkolli L, Saiva A, Maghera J, et al.. (2026). "I should have been asked how I was doing": The impact of healthcare encounters on mental health among young adults living with type 1 diabetes.. Primary care diabetes. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcd.2026.08.006