A new study reports how emotional wellbeing in young adults with type 1 diabetes was regularly checked as part of clinical care at a Queensland hospital
Living with diabetes, day in day out, can affect a person’s emotional wellbeing. Many people experience negative emotions, e.g. stress, frustration, worry, anger, loneliness, sadness. Diabetes distress refers to these negative emotional responses. Research shows that diabetes distress is linked with depression and higher blood glucose levels.
It is recommended that health professionals need to monitor the emotional wellbeing of people with diabetes regularly. Yet, this is often not done as part of clinical care.
There are tools that can measure diabetes distress. One such tool is the Diabetes Psychosocial Assessment Tool (DPAT). The DPAT has 43 questions. Based on a person’s responses, various options are suggested. For example, the person may benefit from being referred to a psychologist.
The DPAT was used in a study at the Young Adults Diabetes clinic at Mater Hospital in Queensland. The ACBRD’s Christel Hendrieckx was part of the study team. The study monitored the young adults’ emotional wellbeing over time. It also monitored the types of support offered.
How was the DPAT used as part of clinical care?
Young adults with type 1 diabetes were asked to complete the DPAT in the waiting room before their appointment. The DPAT took around 10 minutes to complete. A doctor read their responses and discussed them with the young adults as part of their care conversations.
Who took part in the study?
Between 2016 and 2020, 115 young adults completed the DPAT at least twice at separate visits to the clinic. Their average age was 20 years. There was more than one year between the first and second DPAT.
What were the key findings?
The first use of the DPAT showed 25% of young adults had moderate-to-severe diabetes distress. It also showed that 19% had symptoms of anxiety/depression. The DPAT and the conversations that followed helped doctors to identify issues and provide suitable support. Overall, 77% of the young adults were referred to another health professional. This included a diabetes educator, dietitian, or psychologist. The most frequent referral was to a diabetes educator.
More than one year later, the second use of the DPAT showed clear improvements in symptoms of anxiety/depression. Young women showed more improvement than young men. There were also reductions in diabetes distress.
A limitation of this study is that the young adults were not followed up outside the hospital clinic to see if they continued accessing support or not. This could have affected their responses to the second DPAT.
This study shows that diabetes tools to measure emotional wellbeing can be used easily and effectively as part of clinical care. Importantly, wellbeing issues can be identified quickly, and relevant support offered.
See our other blogs to read more about research on emotional wellbeing.
A practical guide to support health professionals to communicate about emotional problems with adults living with type 1 and type 2 diabetes is also available on our website.
Leaflets for adults with diabetes are available available on our website.
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Reference:
Luong D, Griffin A, Barrett H, Hendrieckx C and D’Silva N. Emotional well-being and HbA1c following the implementation of the Diabetes Psychosocial Assessment Tool (DPAT) in young adults with type 1 diabetes (T1DM): An observational study. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 2023 Jun;200:110696. Epub 2023 May 8.
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