Background: DM remains a serious cause of morbidity and mortality. In Egypt, the prevalence of type 2 DM is around 15.6% of all adults aged 20 to 79 years and around 32.4% of elderly population. DM affects not only physical health, but also mental wellbeing as upon diagnosis, patient acquires added responsibilities, planning and self-monitoring to manage DM and reach the desired targeted glycemic control. Diabetes Distress (DD) is the negative psychological reaction related to emotional burdens and worries specific to individual's experience while managing a severe and complicated chronic disease as diabetes. DD is higher in females, having more complications, poor diet and longer diabetic duration. DD is associated with higher levels of HbA1c. DD is different and distinguishable from depression. Aim of the study: to study Diabetic Distress in a sample of Egyptian diabetic elderly patients. Patients & Methods: A Descriptive cross-sectional study on 100 elderly Egyptian diabetic patients aged ≥ 60 years. Full history taking, comprehensive geriatric assessment, DDS17 questionnaire and HbA1c testing were performed for all participants. Results: The total DD among the studied cases was 37%. The most affected domain was regimen distress (54%) followed by emotional distress (28%) then physician distress (26%) and lastly interpersonal distress (25%). DD increase significantly with being female, obesity, non-married, longer diabetic duration, longer hypertension duration, using insulin, having diabetic complications and untreated cataract. It was associated with poor glycemic control as there was a statistically significant correlation between total DD and mean HbA1c.
Conclusions: The DD is prevalent among elderly diabetic patients and associated with multiple risk factors which may need
further studying.