The Impact of Diabetes Distress on the Treatment Outcome

The prevalence of diabetes mellitus is getting increased in Indonesia. The treatment and disease complexity may cause patients distress. The objective of this study is to determine the association between diabetes-related distress and the treatment outcome of T2D patients.

This study used a cross-sectional design. Data were collected from diabetes patients at Abdul Azis Hospital, Singkawang, Meranti Hospital, Meranti County and DOK II Hospital Jayapura during 2017 and 2018. The inclusion criteria were patients diagnosed with T2DM, aged over 18, and under outpatient treatment at the hospitals in the aforementioned period. The clinical and socio-demographic data were taken from the patients’ medical record. The Diabetes-Distress Scale (DDS) was used to measures the patients’ distress.

The patient characteristic of this research showed that the mean of patients'age was 57.14 years old (SD = 9.4). Almost 59% among them was female, 92.6% was married, and 62.2% had a higher level of education. Around 54% of patients had a HbA1C of more than 7.5 with a mean 8.68 (SD=2.58). It also showed from the plasma glucose which 53% had more than 200 mg/dL (the average 219.64 (SD=85.11)), and 71% had 2-hours postprandial more than 200mg/dL. The significant associations were seen between all domains of distress and random blood glucose (p<0.05). The emotional and management related distress had the significant association with HbA1C (p<0.05).

All the distress domains are related to the high level of random blood glucose. Furthermore, the emotional and management related distress is related with the HbA1C. The combination between pharmacological and psychological intervention is suggested to improve the clinical outcome.