Objective: Diabetes-related distress is present in a high proportion of people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We hypothesized that complexity of the antidiabetic medication regimen is a factor that increases diabetes-related distress.

Research Design and Methods: We studied 74 consecutive patients with T2DM managed at a tertiary care center. Patients were screened for diabetes-related distress using the Diabetes Distress Scale-2 (DDS-2). A Diabetes Medication Complexity Scoring (DMCS) system was developed to objectively assess the diabetes medication complexity. Based on DMCS, participants were categorized into one of three groups: low (n = 26), moderate (n = 22) and high (n = 26) medication complexity.

Results: The prevalence of diabetes-related distress (DDS-2 ≥6) was 34.6% in the low, 36.4% in the moderate, and 69.2% in the high complexity groups (χ2(2) = 7.75, p= 0.021). Complexity groups were similar on sociodemographic characteristics, diabetes duration, BMI and blood pressure as well as the prevalence of hypertension, hyperlipidemia and hypoglycemic episodes over the last year (ps>0.05). The prevalence of microvascular complications varied as a function of low (28%), moderate (45%), and high (76%) regimen complexity (χ2(2) = 11.8, p = 0.003). One-way ANOVA showed significant complexity group differences for HbA1c (F(2,70) = 5.47, p = 0.006) with higher HbA1c in the high and moderate complexity groups than in the low group. Analysis of covariance adjusting for HbA1c showed that DDS-2 significantly differed as a function of complexity group (F (2,69) = 3.93, p = .024). The model explained 16.2% of the variance in DDS-2 (R2 = 0.162). Post hoc analyses revealed that diabetes-related distress was significantly greater for the high (DDS-2 = 6.6) complexity group compared to the moderate complexity group (DDS-2 = 4.5) (p = .031).

Conclusions: A complex antidiabetic medication regimen is associated with high levels of diabetes distress.

Disclosure

M. Luzuriaga: None. R. Leite: None. H. Ahmed: None. P. G. Saab: None. R. Garg: None.

© 2021 by the American Diabetes Association
2021
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