Type 2 diabetes: symptoms and impact on daily life. An eight year follow-up study of psychosocial situation and disease development
✍ Scribed by Sand�n-Eriksson, B.
- Book ID
- 101389834
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2000
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 90 KB
- Volume
- 17
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1357-8170
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
A group of 174 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), recruited at diagnosis in 1988±1989, was followed up eight years later in a questionnaire study and subjects were asked to provide a blood sample for measurement of HbA1c. Forty-three (24.7%) had died during the follow-up period and 88 of the remaining 131 survivors (67.2%) responded to the questionnaire and 86% of these provided a blood sample for HbA1c analysis. The mean age of the patient group at diagnosis was 61.2 years (SD12.5) for men and women. Patients who died had been signi®cantly older (P<0.001 for men; P<0.05 for women) and had had higher HbA1c levels at diagnosis (8.3% vs 7.0%; P<0.01). Patients complained of a mean of 1.9 symptoms of diabetes each in 1990 and less than one symptom each in 1998. In 1990, 82% of the patients was on dietary treatment alone, while in 1998 only 18% were still only receiving dietary treatment. The number of patients on oral treatment and insulin increased from 13 and 5, respectively, at diagnosis to 46 and 14%, respectively; and 20% of the patients were on a combination of oral agents and insulin. As the patient group became older, fewer were still employed at follow-up and more had become pensioners. There was a trend towards fewer still being married. Survivors reported fewer diabetes-related symptom and little impact of their diabetes on daily living, with little gender difference. The majority of patients found living with diabetes to be easy and did not dominate their lives. The proportion of patients who were concerned or very concerned about their health in 1998 decreased from 44.9% in 1988±1989 to 36.4% in 1998. Men tended to be less concerned about their perceived state of health (71% men vs 48% women) but while 70% of men still claimed not be worried in 1998, slightly more women had stated that they were not at all concerned about their health in 1998 (48% vs 55%). Thus type 2 DM appears to have little impact on patients' psychosocial situation or self-assessed perception of health. Degree of glycaemic control, measured by HbA1c, improved over the follow-up period and number of symptoms decreased.