Background and objectives

Diabetes-related distress refers to the emotional burden and worries that are part of the spectrum of the patient experience, when managing a severe, demanding chronic disease, like diabetes. We aimed to study the association of diabetes-related distress and glycemic control in a cohort of our patients.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study among adults with type 2 diabetes in the endocrinology outpatient clinic of a tertiary care center in Telangana, India, during a three-month period between September 2019 and November 2019. We used the diabetes distress scale-17 items (DDS-17) to assess the presence of diabetes-related distress. A score of >2 was considered moderate distress and ≥3 was classified as high distress.

Results

We recruited 142 patients. 63 (44.36%) were females and 79 (55.63%) were males. Mean HbA1c of total patients was 61 mmol/mol (7.72 ± 1.62%). The mean age of patients was 53.94 ± 12.25 years. The mean duration of diabetes was 6.56 ± 5.27 years. 12 patients (6 males (7.59%) and 6 females (9.52%)) had severe distress (score > 3). Severe emotional burden was found in 20 patients (14%), interpersonal distress among 6 patients (4%), and regimen-related distress among 19 patients (13.38%). There was a significant increase in the total DDS scores and the subscores with increasing diabetes duration. There was a significant positive correlation between HbA1c and total DDS scores. There was no correlation of higher DDS with older age groups.

Conclusions

Diabetes distress and glycemic control have a strong correlation with each other, and both need to be addressed during management of type 2 DM.

中文翻译：

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在Telangana的三级医疗中心使用糖尿病困扰量表对2型糖尿病患者中与糖尿病有关的困扰进行研究

背景和目标

与糖尿病有关的困扰是指在处理严重，高要求的慢性疾病（如糖尿病）时，情绪负担和忧虑是患者体验的一部分。我们旨在研究一组患者中与糖尿病相关的困扰和血糖控制的相关性。

方法

我们在2019年9月至2019年11月的三个月期间，在印度Telangana一家三级护理中心的内分泌科门诊中对2型糖尿病成人进行了横断面研究。我们使用了17个糖尿病困扰量表（DDS-17）评估是否存在与糖尿病有关的困扰。得分> 2被认为是中度苦恼，≥3被认为是高苦恼。

结果

我们招募了142名患者。女性63例（44.36％），男性79例（55.63％）。所有患者的平均HbA1c为61 mmol / mol（7.72±1.62％）。患者的平均年龄为53.94±12.25岁。糖尿病的平均病程为6.56±5.27年。12名患者（6例男性（7.59％）和6例女性（9.52％））有严重困扰（得分> 3）。20名患者（14％）发现严重的情绪负担，6名患者（4％）发现人际关系困扰，19名患者（13.38％）发现与方案有关的困扰。随着糖尿病持续时间的增加，总DDS评分和子评分显着增加。HbA1c与总DDS得分之间存在显着的正相关。较高的DDS与年龄较大的人群没有相关性。

结论

糖尿病困扰和血糖控制之间有很强的相关性，在2型糖尿病的管理过程中都需要解决这两个问题。