Status and influencing factors of fear of hypoglycemia among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Objective To investigate the current status of the fear of hypoglycemia in hospitalized type 2 diabetes mellitus with the history of hypoglycemia. Mehtods Total of 396 type 2 diabetes patients with the history of hypoglycemia were recruited by multi-centers purposive sampling method. The Mean (SD) age of the 396 participants was 55.4(9.34) years, 218 being male. The subjects were investigated with Chinese version of Hypoglycemia Fear SurveyII-Worry Scale (CHFSII-WS), self-rating depression scale(SDS), self-rating anxiety scale(SAS) and demographic survey questionnaire. T test and one-way AVOVA and multiple linear regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Results The median score of CHFSII-WS was 9.00 points (interquartile range, 5- 16 points). The t-test showed that the scores of CHFSII-WS was significantly associated with gender, family history, anxiety and depression (t=-3.797,2.010,3.809,3.479, all P<0.05). The F-test showed that age, marital status, frequency of hypoglycemia, severity of hypoglycemia (F= 6.617,2.644,3.327,3.246, all P<0.05) were significantly associated with the scores of CHFSII-WS. Regression analysis showed that severe hypolycemia, anxiety, female, divorced and the frequency of hypoglycemia were significant factors of patients' fear of hypoglycemia (adjusted R2=0.229, F=5.905, P< 0.05). Conclusions In the clinical practice, the nursing stuff should pay attention to the evaluation of the patients' fear of the hypoglycemia and provide the health education of hypoglycemia in patients with type 2 diabetes. Key words: Diabetes mellitus, type 2; Hypoglycemia; Fear of hypoglycemia