Adults With Diabetes Distress Often Want to Talk With Their Health Professionals About It: Findings From an Audit of 4 Australian Specialist Diabetes Clinics

Abstract

ObjectivesIn an unselected clinical sample, we aimed to: 1) investigate the willingness of adults with diabetes to talk with their health professional(s) about their feelings and experiences living with diabetes, 2) assess the prevalence of impaired general emotional well-being and severe diabetes distress and 3) examine whether willingness to talk related to general and/or diabetes-specific emotional well-being. MethodsUnselected adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) or type 2 diabetes (T2D) attending 4 Australian specialist diabetes clinics completed surveys about their experiences of, and preferences for, talking with their diabetes health professional(s) about their feelings and personal experiences of diabetes. They indicated preferred topics to discuss from a list and completed validated measures of emotional well-being (World Health Organisation-5 Well-being Index) and diabetes distress (Problem Areas In Diabetes scale). ResultsAmong 682 participants (T1D, n=440; T2D, n=142), one-fourth of adults with T1D and nearly half with T2D wanted to talk with their health professional about their “feelings and personal experience of living with diabetes,” with >50% reported having been asked. The most commonly selected topic was “How diabetes affects my mood” (T1D, 35%; T2D, 37%). Impaired emotional well-being (T1D, 33%; T2D, 39%) and severe diabetes distress (T1D, 17%; T2D, 25%) were prevalent. Those willing to talk had greater diabetes distress. ConclusionsIn this study we show that many adults with T1D and T2D both need and want to talk to their diabetes health professionals about the emotional impact of diabetes. Those who were most willing to have this conversation were most in need of emotional support.