Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM) is a serious chronic metabolic disease developing most frequently in children, although it may occur in adults. IDDM is the outcome of environmental, genetic and immunologic interactions.
Objective: To study the impact of IDDM on health aspects, social activities and school performance on adolescents in addition to assessing anxiety, depression and total emotional distress.
Methods: This is a case-control study comprised 70 Kuwaiti adolescents 12-20 years old DDM patients [cases], pair-matched to 70 controls on gender and age. Two research instruments were used, a questionnaire consisting of 5 sections [sociodemographic characteristics, health aspects, social factors, school performance and psychological factors] and Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 for assessment of anxiety, depression and total emotional distress.
Results: Parents of IDDM patients were less educated than those of controls and belong to low socioeconomic status. Cases experienced more adverse symptoms and reported less social activities than controls. Higher proportion of cases reported anxiety than controls [57.1% vs 31.4%, p < 0.05]. Although not statistically different, higher proportion of cases reported depression and total emotional distress [51.4% vs. 48.6%] and [58.6 vs 47.1%] respectively.
Conclusion: IDDM patients were not very different from controls, as it seems that they adapted themselves to the limitations of their disease.