Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The prevalence of diabetes continues to increase worldwide. Diabetes distress (DD) defined as patient concerns about disease management, support, emotional burden, and access to care. It is distinct from depression.

Aim: To document the prevalence of Diabetes related distress.

Objectives: 1. Determine the level of distress among the study population.

2. Determine the proportion of those with high distress, moderate distress and those with little or no distress.

3. Determine the relationship between glycaemic control and distress scores.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from May to June 2018. Data were collected through interview and record review of 50 adults attending the Diabetes Clinic at Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, Nigeria. Diabetes Distress Scale-17 (DDS-17) was used to measure Diabetes distress. Initially DDS-2 was used for screening purposes.

Results: The mean age of study participants was 55.16+16.87 years. The mean of duration of diabetes was 7.96+7.01 years while the mean blood glucose was 119.74+40.52 mg/dl. The proportion of diabetes distress among the study population was 30%; 10% had high distress and 20% moderate distress. The remaining 70% had little or no distress. The Mean ± SD of total diabetes distress score was 1.72±0.69. The Mean ± SD for each domain score such as emotional burden, physician related distress, regimen-related distress and interpersonal distress was (2.08±1.13), (1.31±0.49), (1.79±0.82), (1.59±0.97) respectively. Emotional burden was considered as the most important domain in measuring diabetes distress.

Conclusion: Diabetes distress especially emotional burden is a significant health problem among the subjects studied. Careful attention should be paid to this aspect in diabetes care delivery services.

Reference: 1. Islam MR, Karim MR, Habib SH, Yesmin K. Diabetes distress among type 2 diabetic patients. Int J Med Biomed Res 2013;2(2):113–124