| Abstract: | Background: Diabetes is a chronic illness that affects manydomains of life. This cross-sectional study examined disease-relateddistress and its associations with health and psychosocial factorsamong insulin-treated diabetic persons. Method: The sample (n=423)was drawn from the Social Insurance Institution's drug registry.Health indicators were duration of diabetes, complications,and glycaemlc control. Psychosocial measures included generaland diabetes-specific social support, diabetes locus of control(DLC), self-efficacy, diabetes health beliefs and self-carepractices and subjective health. Results: Most respondents reportedmoderate diabetes-related distress. In multi-variate analysis,severe diabetes distress was related to lower net benefits ofregimen (ß = –0.29, and p<0.001), poorerperceived health (ß = –0.25, and p<0.001),higher perceived threat of complications (ß = 0.19,and p<0.001), less adequate social support (ß =–0.16, and p<0.01), stronger beliefs in chance (ß= 0.15, and p<0.01) and internal DLC (ß = 0.11,and p<0.05) and more frequent exercising (ß = 0.10,and p<0.05). Conclusions: The results suggest that emotionaladjustment to diabetes is predominantly determined by diabetes-relatedcognitions and subjective health and to a lesser degree by objectivediabetes indlcators, which underlines the Importance of assistingthe patient with adjustment with the disease in health carecentres. |
