Type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease and requires an intensive and continuous daily monitoring and treatment in order to maintain a balanced and normal blood sugar levels, and to prevent complications in the various body systems. Diabetes can affect many areas of life, including various mental reactions, such as depression, and the patient's perception of illness has an impact on coping with this disease. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the components of illness perception and the coping of type 2 diabetes patients.
In this cohort study, 112 patients with type 2 diabetes were participated and completed the Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R), applied to diabetes. Demographic characteristics, such as details of diabetes status (duration of diabetes, treatments and complications) and glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) were recorded. It is also included question about the coping with the disease and compliance to the treatment.
Low compliance to the treatment was correlated with greater perceived symptom load (r=0.38, P<0.01), worse anticipated consequences (r=−0.45, P<0.01) and perceived lack of control of the disease (r=0.31, P<0.01). Linear regression revealed that perceived of high sense of control and less worse anticipated consequences predicted an effective coping with diabetes.
The importance of the study is to understand the factors that contribute to an effective diabetes coping and management and to increase responsiveness to treatment, balance and prevention of complications. The findings indicate the importance of diabetes patient's illness perception as contributing to coping with it.