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Objective: Depression and anxiety are common symptoms in patients with type 2 diabetes, and certain sociological factors, such as age and gender, are related to these psychological disorders. The disease-related components such as anxiety, depression, and health-related quality of life may change in each progression period of type 2 diabetes in both genders. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare anxiety, depression, and health-related quality of life in newly diagnosed male and female type 2 diabetic patients with those of healthy controls.
Methods: The patients were considered to have type 2 diabetes mellitus if the fasting plasma glucose level was >=126 mg/dl (7 mmol/L), and/or the 2nd hour plasma glucose level was >=200 mg/dL (11.1 mmol/L) following an oral glucose tolerance test, and/or random plasma glucose level was >=200 mg/dL (11.1 mmol/L), and/or the value of the HbA1c was >=6.5%, in addition to hyperglycemia symptoms. Eighty patients (40 male, 40 female) with type 2 diabetes and 80 (40 male, 40 female) healthy controls were included in this study. All participants completed the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and short-form health survey (SF-36) questionnaires. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). The significance level was determined as p≤0.05.
Results: It was determined that the SF-36 total scores were lower in male and female type 2 diabetic patients, when compared to the controls. The BAI and BDI scores were higher in the female patients, compared to the controls. Nevertheless, the BAI and BDI scores were not significantly different between the male patients and the controls. The fasting plasma glucose showed negative correlations with the SF-36 total score in the diabetic patients in both genders. Also, the fasting plasma glucose showed positive correlations with the BDI score in the female patients.
Conclusion: This study revealed that the health-related quality of life was impaired in male and female type 2 diabetic patients, when compared to the controls. However, the anxiety and depression symptomatology were exacerbated only in female diabetic patients, compared to the controls. We suggest that the consideration of anxiety, and depression, on the basis of gender, in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients might be helpful for the development of more successful illness management strategies, including early intervention.