THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-CARE AND EMOTIONAL DISTRESS IN PATIENTS WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES REFERRED TO THE YAZD DIABETES RESEARCH CENTER IN 2018

Diabetes is the most common metabolic disease in the world, and self-care is one of the main strategies for controlling the disease. Several studies point to the lack of optimal self-care in diabetic patients as psychological barriers, and emotional distress seems to be one of the factors affecting it. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the relationship between self-care and emotional distress in patients with type 2 diabetes.

In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 380 patients with type 2 diabetes were selected from among those referring to Yazd Diabetes Research Center in 2018. A demographic questionnaire, an emotional distress questionnaire, and a self-care questionnaire for diabetic patients were utilized for gathering data. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS software version 21, and descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficient were utilized.

The results showed that the mean score of self-care patients was 56.65 ± 13.13 and the mean score of emotional distress was 40.82 ± 15.15. Therefore, self-care and emotional distress were moderate in most patients. Based on the Pearson correlation coefficient, there was a negative correlation between self-care score and emotional distress in diabetic patients (r = -0.25, p = 0.01).

Reducing emotional distress is one of the factors affecting the improvement of patients' self-care behaviors, therefore it is necessary to pay attention to it in educational and counseling programs to prevent complications of diabetes and to increase the self-care behaviors of patients.