| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2014 | Volume
: 35
| Issue : 3 | Page : 173-178 |
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Quality of life and self-esteem of children and adolescents with diabetes type 1
Youmna Sabri1, Ashraf Sharkawy2, Shwikar Farrag3, Hala El Boraie1
1 Psychiatry Department, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt
2 Child Department, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt
3 Child Mental Health Department, Faculty of Nursery
Correspondence Address:
Hala El Boraie
Psychiatry Department, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/1110-1105.144348
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Background
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most common chronic diseases in children and adolescents and requires special self-care behaviors throughout life. Living with the requirements related to glycemic control, insulin therapy, diet plan, and physical activity may have a significant impact on the psychological functioning of not only the patients, but also their families.
Aim
The present study had the purpose of evaluating the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and self-esteem (SE) of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), analyzing the relationship between these constructs in this population and comparing these results with those of nondiabetic ones, and finding if there is association between metabolic control (HbA1c) and these psychosocial correlates (HRQoL and SE).
Materials and methods
Study participants included parents and their children/adolescents with type 1 diabetes who were 10-18 years old. The participants have had T1DM for more than 2 years. The control group consisted of 42 healthy children who were 10-18 years old. PedsQL 4.0 Generic Core Scales were designed to measure the core health dimensions in both healthy and patient populations. PedsQL 3.0 diabetic module (DM) was developed to measure diabetes-specific HRQoL, for youths with T1DM. Hare Area-Specific Self-Esteem Scale measures adolescents' feelings about their worth and importance among peers, as students, and as family members.
Results
The mean total HRQoL scale scores (child self-report and parent proxy-reports) were 75.42 and 72.37 for diabetic patients and 94.80 and 96.83 for healthy ones, with significant difference (P < 0.001). In addition, diabetic patients showed lower SE (2.31) than healthy ones (2.05), as higher scores indicate lower SE. However, there were significant negative correlations between PedsQL 4.0 Generic Core Scale - both child and parent report - and SE scale scores in diabetic patients, whereas [Table 5] shows positive correlation between HbA1c levels and SE scores and insignificant negative correlation between HbA1c levels and school function scores in PedsQL among diabetic patients.
Conclusion
Diabetic patients have lower quality of life than healthy ones in the physical, emotional, and social domains. The SE and quality of life concepts are related, that is, the better the quality of life of diabetic patients, the higher the SE. Uncontrolled diabetes (increased level of HbA1c, 8.4%) did not affect PedsQL except for school function domain, but with insignificant statistical level. However, this suboptimal metabolic control affects the SE of children and adolescents. |
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