title: Emotional distress is associated with poor self care in type 2 diabetes mellitus.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of the present study was to evaluate possible clinical and psychosocial variables that influence diabetes self-care management in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 150 individuals with T2DM who had had diabetes for at least 6 months were recruited to this cross-sectional study. Levels of self-care and psychosocial status were determined using the Self-Care Inventory (SCI) and Problem Areas in Diabetes (PAID) scale. The PAID scores were calculated using a five-point Likert scale with options ranging from 0 (not a problem) to 4 (serious problem). Data were evaluated using non-parametric and parametric tests as appropriate.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of the study participants was 69.97 ± 8.68 years. Cronbach's α for SCI and PAID scores was 0.85 and 0.98, respectively. People with poor glycemic control had significantly higher mean (±SD) total PAID scores than individuals with good glycemic control (29.5 ± 30.9 vs 16.7 ± 26.9, respectively; P = 0.012). There was a significant relationship between PAID scores and glycemic control (r = 0.2; P = 0.012).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study demonstrates that psychosocial factors directly influence glycemic control and diabetes self-care habits. In addition, diabetes-specific distress in study population was unrelated to the duration of diabetes, the age of the patients and anthropometric indices.
authors: Department of Medicine, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. oogbera@yahoo.co.uk
authors: Anthonia
authors: A
authors: Ogbera
authors: Adekunle
authors: A
authors: Adeyemi-Doro
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015190:Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012648:Self Care; D013315:Stress, Psychological