Prevalence of Misconceptions about Diabetes and their Association with Metabolic and Psychological Variables

Authors: Gloria Marcela Ruiz-Cervantes, Ana Cristina García-Ulloa*, Angélica Palacios-Vargas, Claudia Lechuga-Fonseca, Alejandra Sierra-Esquivel, María Luisa Velasco-Pérez, Sergio Hernández-Jiménez, For the Group of Study CAIPaDi Center of Compreh

DOI: 10.23880/doij-16000239

Volume 6, Issue 1

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate misconceptions about diabetes in people who attend the first visit at the CAIPaDi program, as well as its association with metabolic and psychological variables at short and long term. Methods and Analysis: The frequency of misconceptions in diabetes was determined through a true/false survey. We compared sociodemographic, metabolic and psychological variables between people with and without misconceptions at baseline, at 3 months and 1 year after a multidisciplinary educational program. Results: 902 participants answered the survey, with an age of 50 ±10 years old, 54.3% were women, with 1 (0-5) years living with type 2 diabetes. At baseline, 53% of the participants had at least 1 misconception, being more frequent in women (p=0.045) and in population with lower educational level (p<0.001). The most common were "emotional stress and fright cause diabetes" (34.4%), "in the control of my diabetes only matters glucose management" (15.2%) and "women with diabetes should not get pregnant" (11.8%). At basal, patients with misconceptions had higher HbA1c (9.0 ± 2.6 vs 8.4 ± 2.4, p <0.001), lower quality of life (DQOL 95.2 ± 26.2 vs 90.2 ± 23.6, p = 0.03), more problematic areas in diabetes (41.2 [21.2-58.4] vs 35 [17.5-52.6], p = 0.01), more depression (42.6% vs 32.9%, p = 0.003) and anxiety (58.6% vs 40.6%, p = 0.001) compared to patients without misconceptions. With the exception of HbA1c (6.6 ± 1 vs 6.4 ± 0.8, p = 0.025 at 1 year), no differences were observed in the annual visits. Conclusion: We found a high prevalence of people with misconceptions in diabetes. This group had worst glycaemic control, higher scores in PAID questionnaire, lower quality of life and more depression and anxiety symptoms. Participants with misconceptions had lower educational level. An educative program an educational assistance program can minimize differences by eradicating misconceptions.

Keywords: Diabetes; Misconceptions; Metabolic; Psychological; Education; Glucose

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