Abstract
To investigate the fear of hypoglycaemia in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), to identify factors related to this fear, and thus to provide evidence for clinical assessment. A total of 385 patients with T2DM who were admitted to the departments of endocrinology in five tertiary grade-A hospitals in Chongqing, China were included in this study. A questionnaire for general information and a Chinese version of Hypoglycemia Fear Survey (HFS) were used to collect the data. The average total score on the HFS was 71.67 ± 17.06 (HFS-W was 38.15 ± 10.57; HFS-B was 33.52 ± 9.54).The three items with the highest average score for HFS-W were not recognising low blood glucose (BG), not having food available, experiencing a hypoglycaemic episode alone, and for HFS-B were eating large amount of snacks, measuring BG six or more times per day, and keeping BG > 150 mmol/L. Regressions showed that number of hospitalisations for T2DM, receiving health education on diabetes, age and hypoglycaemia history because of T2DM were associated with fear of hypoglycaemia (all p < 0.05). Fear of hypoglycaemia in hospitalised patients with T2DM was strongly associated with diabetes health education, hospitalisation for diabetes, age, and hypoglycaemia history. Medical professionals should attach importance to the specific psychological interventions, health education on diabetes and the early prevention of hypoglycaemia or diabetic complications for patients with T2DM to reduce the fear of hypoglycaemia and improve their health status.
Highlights
To investigate the fear of hypoglycaemia in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), to identify factors related to this fear, and to provide evidence for clinical assessment
Since the 1980s, most the countries in the world have experienced a rapid increase in the number of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), several developing countries such as China[1,2,3,4]
Advances have been made in techniques and evidence-based diabetes management, FoH remains a problem in diabetes management[18]
Summary
To investigate the fear of hypoglycaemia in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), to identify factors related to this fear, and to provide evidence for clinical assessment. Fear of hypoglycaemia in hospitalised patients with T2DM was strongly associated with diabetes health education, hospitalisation for diabetes, age, and hypoglycaemia history. These behaviours are intended to keep blood glucose (BG) levels above the target range to minimise the frequency and severity of hypoglycaemia[17,19] These behaviours may lead to poor treatment compliance and glycemic control, which may cause negative effects (e.g., reducing quality of life[20], impairing glycemic c ontrol[21], and subsequent development of microvascular c omplications22) on diabetes treatment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the current status of FoH and identify its related factors among patients with T2DM. The findings of this study may provide resources for the development of diabetes management
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