Living with diabetes: Indian experience

SummaryAimsType 2 diabetes, which is common in India and is bound to become more common, is a lifestyle disease, which requires to be managed by the health care team and the family. We evaluated support and parameters of psychological aspects of adults with diabetes in a Diabetes Centre in India.MethodsWe employed the following instruments: ATT39, ATT19, barriers to self-care, social support, quality of life and well-being questionnaires.ResultsThere were gender differences in all the parameters studied: compared to women, men had better adjustment with disease, coped better, integrated better, had better quality of life and well-being. The social support was focussed on the nuclear family (spouse principally, and children to a lesser extent).ConclusionsIn management of type 2 diabetes in our setting, cost-effective focus can be placed on the nuclear family as a unit in managing diabetes.