DEVELOPMENT OF A MOBILE APPLICATION BASED SPECIFIC STRESS SCALE FOR GESTATIONAL DIABETES MELLITUS

Abstract

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is the type of diabetes that occurs in women at the time of gestation or pregnancy. Prevalence of GDM is increasing worldwide. Yearly 21 million new cases are reported. A normal pregnancy itself is linked with unique physical and psychological challenges and which is documented by medical fraternity. But no mention is made on psychological complaints specific to pregnant women diagnosed to have diabetes. It is well documented that diabetes is linked with significant distress level because it demands many lifestyle changes and pregnancy itself is a challenging condition. It stands to reason that a diabetic pregnancy will be linked with significant stress. Maternal exposure to stress can adversely affect the health of both foetus and mother. Stress can also affect diabetic management by influencing diet compliance, medication adherence and blood glucose monitoring. Studies also stated that stress can cause hyperglycaemia by altering hormone balance in body. Therefore any action plan for GDM must include proper stress management to obtain a desired outcome. Customised scales are available to measure the stress related to diabetes and normal pregnancy. But there was no specific scale available to measure GDM related stress scale. This study was undertaken to develop a mobile application based specific stress scale for GDM. A new scale called Gestational Diabetes Stress Scale (GDSS) was developed and introduced through a mobile application. This is a 16 item scale. GDSS gives total score and four subscale scores. A mean item score greater than or equal to 3 indicates the need of clinical attention. The total score is used to measure the overall stress level in patient. And the four subscale scores are to identify the possible sources of stress, which means whether the stress is due to emotional burden and/or medication related and/or health care set up and/or due to any economic or social relationship related and thus it allows the health care professional to manage the stress accordingly, thereby the gap in measuring gestational diabetes mellitus related stress was bridged and through the mobile application all the needed patients and health care providers can use it.