The Hidden Struggle: Exploring Diabetes-Related Distress in a Hospital-Based Cross-Sectional Study

BackgroundDiabetes distress can be defined as the emotional and psychological burden associated with living with and managing diabetes.It is shown to be associated with higher HbA1c levels, along with other factors such as a lack of psychological and emotional support from family, friends and physicians.Despite this, it is often neglected in standard treatment regimens of diabetes.Recognising the psychological aspect of diabetes and addressing it will lead to an increase in overall clinical outcomes among patients. ObjectivesThis study aims to assess the prevalence and impact of diabetes-related distress using the Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS-17).This study also aims to find the relationship between duration of diabetes, HbA1c levels, presence of comorbidities, gender, educational status and treatment regimens with the levels of distress experienced. MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted over six months at a tertiary care hospital, involving 235 confirmed patients with T2DM aged over 18 years.Data were collected using a pre-designed semi-structured questionnaire through face-to-face interviews, covering sociodemographic details, clinical history and HbA1c levels.Diabetes distress was measured using the DDS-17.Ethical clearance was obtained, and informed consent was collected.Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics software, version 21.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY), with significance set at p<0.05. ResultsA total of 235 participants were included in this study, of which 77% had clinically significant distress.The duration of diabetes, one or more comorbidities, poor glycaemic index and treatment-related challenges were the main contributing factors to distress.Patients with diabetes duration over 10 years had a significant distress percentage of 23.4% compared with 17.3% in patients with a duration of less than five years. ConclusionThese particular findings emphasise the need to integrate routine psychological screening into diabetes care using the DDS-17.Physicians must focus on the psychological aspects of diabetes and subsequently improve communication with patients for a more holistic management approach.