Chennai: In south India, women have high level of distress in managing diabetes as compared to men, according to a research conducted by MV Hospital for Diabetes and Prof M Viswanathan Diabetes Research Centre.
A cross-sectional study of 400 type-2 diabetes patients, both equal numbers of male and female participants aged between 25 and 65 were included in the research. An assessment was conducted with type-2 diabetes using ‘Diabetes Distress Scale-17’ to observe its correlation with glycemic control and treatment modalities. The clinical interpreting score were fixed with <2.0 as little or no distress and <3.0 as high distress. The study findings highlighted that 55 per cent of women had high levels of distress with mean score of 2.79 ± 1.52 as compared to 22.5 per cent of men with 1.62 ± 0.83, a press release stated.
“Type-2 diabetes is now considered as the biggest life threatening disease. More people affected by it have one or more complications like retinopathy, hypertension and erectile dysfunction,” said MV Hospital for Diabetes and Prof M Viswanathan Diabetes Research Centre head and chief diabetologist Dr Vijay Viswanathan here Thursday.
To handle the stress, the centre has introduced the concept of Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support (DSMES) at Royapuram, Adyar and Velacheri centers.