Results from this study suggest that the impact of staffing on outcomes is highly variable across specialty units; however, when present, the relationships are inversely related with lower staffing levels, resulting in higher rates of all outcomes.
Having diabetes did not appear to significantly decrease the risk-taking behavior of the teens. Early and some unsafe sexual practices may increase their risk for an unplanned pregnancy that could result in pregnancy-related complications. Enhancing awareness, knowledge, and attitudes through preconception counseling and reproductive health education may reduce these risks by empowering young women to plan healthy future pregnancies.
This sample of teens lacked awareness of pregnancy-related complications with diabetes, the term and role of PC in preventing these complications, and the importance for women with diabetes to use a highly effective birth control method for preventing an unplanned pregnancy. Because of its implications for future reproductive health behavior and preventing unplanned pregnancies and complications, during their routine clinic visits, it is imperative for health professionals to raise these issues with their adolescent female patients.
In this sample of adolescent females with T1D, the strongest predictors from the three theories for intention to using BC appeared to be perceived barriers, cues to action, and self-efficacy. Intervention studies to decrease future unplanned pregnancies in this high-risk population could focus on strategies to target these factors that are amenable to change.
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