Prediction of diabetes distress among adults with type 2 diabetes

Abstract

Diabetic patients will possibly be burdened with certain emotional distress level due to their health conditions. Emotional distress must be distinguished through observations on the general symptoms of depression and anxiety experienced by non-diabetic patients. Due to an insufficient amount of empirical works of research on the symptoms of diabetes distress in Iran, this research was conducted to investigate on diabetes distress and identify the factors which lead to the continuous distress among type 2 diabetic patients in the Iranian population. In order to appeal to the type 2 diabetic outpatients (n = 109), the Persian version of the Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS) was operated on a consecutive basis from May to August 2017 in all diabetes specialist hospitals in Kashan, Iran. With the application of full and trimmed methods on logistic regression, the comparison was made between the diabetic and the non-diabetic patients in terms of their behavioral (exercise) and biological variables (cholesterol level, blood pressure, and smoking status), including their demographic factors. It was found that males, unmarried individuals, low-income employees, diabetic patients who have been diagnosed for over 5 years, those whose previous family members were not suffered from diabetes, and individuals who are diagnosed with high-level cholesterol and blood pressure are most likely to have diabetes distress. A list of important, interactive, direct, and independent factors of diabetes distress has been developed. This will be useful for the identification of high-risk patient cohort through patient screening. Furthermore, the benefits of the assessment of both disease-related and current life stressors in medical care have been found by identifying the effects of high diabetes distress and biological factors.