Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jun 26, 2021; 9(18): 4709-4720
Published online Jun 26, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i18.4709
Role of theories in school-based diabetes care interventions: A critical review
Ruo-Peng An, Dan-Yi Li, Xiao-Ling Xiang
Ruo-Peng An, Dan-Yi Li, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO 63130, United States
Xiao-Ling Xiang, School of Social Work, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States
Author contributions: An RP designed the research study; Li DY performed the literature search; An RP and Li DY analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Xiang XL made critical revisions to the manuscript; All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Dan-Yi Li, Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, Saint Louis, MO 63130, United States. danyi@wustl.edu
Received: January 27, 2021
Peer-review started: January 27, 2021
First decision: February 25, 2021
Revised: March 5, 2021
Accepted: May 6, 2021
Article in press: May 6, 2021
Published online: June 26, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: This critical review found that theory-based diabetes care interventions in United States schools are lacking. In the rare cases where theories were applied, insufficient application and underutilization of theoretical constructs were common. Future investigations should consider applying theories in the design of intervention components and linking essential theory-relevant constructs to intervention techniques. Theory-based interventions provide opportunities to identify mediators of behavior change and effective intervention components.