Background:  Diabetes in young adults requires age-specific appropriate care from a multidisciplinary team. Our YADS Service was established nearly 18months ago, provides a monthly multidisciplinary outpatient service and is currently funded for 8hours DNE support for this. This service provides support and care for young adults in the 15-25 age group.

Aims and Rationale: As glycaemic control is the main determinant of development of cardiovascular complications, our aim was to evaluate whether DNE support can improve the glycaemic control of the young adults attending our service.  

Methods:  A point of care HbA1c was taken from people attending each clinic. Data has been collected from those who have attended clinic on at least two occasions from September  2013 to February 2015. Hba1c results were entered into an excel spread-sheet. A comparison between those who were seen by the DNE and those who were not was conducted.

Findings: Currently only around 50% of patients attending this monthly clinic are seen by the DNE. 70 people have attended the clinic on at least one occasion. 48/70 (69%) have attended on more than one occasion. Average reduction in HbA1c across the group who saw the DNE (36/48) was 1.6% compared to those who did not see the DNE which was 0.9 %. Average HbA1c on initial presentation across the clinic population was 8.9 % (range 4.7%– 14%).

Conclusion:  These findings support diabetes educators having an additional positive effect on glycaemic control as measured by HbA1c in this group. The provision of increased DNE services would allow for more equitable access, to enable all people attending this clinic  to receive this service, and would also enable increased support between routine 3 monthly clinic visits.

 Limitations: The Siemens DCA Advantage HbA1c point of care device measures a maximum HbA1c of 14%.