| |
Depression & Anxiety Can Occur in Diabetics and Their Partners, Particularly
Women
|
| |
| |
Depression and Anxiety Among Partners of European-American and Latino
Patients With Type 2 Diabetes
Lawrence Fisher, PHD, University of California, San Francisco, California,
Northern California Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco, California
OBJECTIVE To assess the levels of and the independent contributors to
depressive affect and anxiety among partners of patients with type 2
diabetes.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The partners of 75 Latino and 113
European-American patients with type 2 diabetes were assessed for level of
depressive affect and anxiety and for three groups of potential stressors:
demographics (age, gender, and education), patient
disease status (time since diagnosis, HbA1c, comorbidities, and BMI), and
family stress (disease impact, spouse conflict, and family closeness).
Dependent variables were partner depressive affect (Center for
Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale) and anxiety (Symptom Checklist
[SCL-90] anxiety). Predictors of partner depressive affect and anxiety and
partner-patient concordance rates were computed.
RESULTS Levels of depressive affect and anxiety and rates of likely
depression (21.4%) were as high for partners as they were for patients. No
differences were found on depressive affect or anxiety by ethnicity, but
female partners scored higher than male partners on both measures.
Partner-patient concordance rates were low. The family level variables
accounted for the most variance in both depressive affect and anxiety, with
demographics and disease status variables contributing modest or
nonsignificant independent variance.
CONCLUSIONS Partners of patients with type 2 diabetes experience levels of
psychological distress as high or even higher than patients, especially if
the partner is female. Low levels of concordance suggest that partners can be
distressed even if patients are not. Many life stresses contribute to
psychological distress among partners, not just disease-related indicators.
The findings suggest the utility of evaluating both partners and patients
using a life-centered rather than a disease-focused perspective.
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
