Diabetes mellitus and psychological well-being. Results of the Nord-Trøndelag health survey

Abstract

The present study relies on questionnaire data from a diabetes and hypertension screening carried out on the entire adult population of a medium-sized Norwegian county (total number of participants = 74,977). Self-reported diabetic patients were compared with non-diabetics, and with patients with self-reported angina pectoris, previous cardiac infarction, and stroke. The psychological well-being of the known diabetic patients was found to be significantly poorer than that of those without diabetes, but better than that of those with angina and stroke. HbAl level was found to be significantly related to well-being, the low levels of HbAl (below 7.5%) scoring low on well-being and the high levels (above 15%) scoring high. Because of its special design, the present study allowed comparisons between diabetic patients undergoing treatment and newly detected patients who had not yet been treated. Treatment-related interpretations therefore could be rejected.