Psychosocial Aspects of Diabetes Technologies: Commentary on the Current Status of the Evidence and Suggestions for Future Directions.

Abstract

Diabetes technologies, including continuous glucose monitors, insulin pumps, and automated insulin delivery systems offer the possibility of improving glycemic outcomes, including reduced hemoglobin A1c, increased time in range, and reduced hypoglycemia. Given the rapid expansion in the use of diabetes technology over the past few years, and touted promise of these devices for improving both clinical and psychosocial outcomes, it is critically important to understand issues in technology adoption, equity in access, maintaining long-term usage, opportunities for expanded device benefit, and limitations of the existing evidence base. We provide a brief overview of the status of the literature-with a focus on psychosocial outcomes-and provide recommendations for future work and considerations in clinical applications. Despite the wealth of the existing literature exploring psychosocial outcomes, there is substantial room to expand our current knowledge base to more comprehensively address reasons for differential effects, with increased attention to issues of health equity and data harmonization around patient-reported outcomes.