Illness Perception and Depression of Type 2 Diabetic Patients

Aim:In this study illness perception and depression levels were determined in type 2 diabetic patients using brief illness perception questionnaire and geriatric depression questionnaire, and the relationship between diabetic parameters and these data were examined. Material and Methods:The study was conducted on type 2 diabetic patients that were registered in Family Medicine outpatient clinic of Cinar County Hospital. Brief illness perception questionnaire and geriatric depression questionnaire were applied to patients that were selected for sampling. Results:Mean brief illness perception scale score and geriatric depression scale score were 50,76±10,2[range 32-70] and 14,33±5,1[range 5-24] respectively. In 23,6% of cases GDS score was normal. In 57,5% of cases mild depression and in 18,9% of cases severe depression were detected. According to HbA1c values in 35,4% of cases diabetes was found under control (HbA1c ≤ 6,9), and in 64,6% of cases it was out of control (HbA1c ≥ 7,0). It was found that, the relations between illness duration, medicine type, blood glucose regulation and illness perception and depression levels were statistically meaningful. Conclusion: Our study indicates that blood glucose regulation was far away from the targets and also indicates that illness perception and deperession data were related with different parameters of diabetes. It's clear that, if the diabetic patient has mood disorder, if the patient could not understand prognosis and complications of disease and if the patient did not believe his control over disease or treatment it would be difficult to achieve target blood glucose levels. This study suggests that, during planning of customized treatment for a patient, including of illness perception and depression data to this process would improve patient involvement and treatment success. [Cukurova Med J 2013; 38(1.000): 31-40]