6th GCC Medical Students Conference

Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University 18-21 January, 2009

Poster Presentation Topic: Endocrinology

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEPRESSED MOOD AND HbA1c LEVELS
Abdullah MS, Reddy A, Meerasa MSS, Ganesh M, Geetha MB, Subhashini A S Department of Physiology, Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai, India Introduction: Depression is a novel modifiable independent risk factor for development of diabetes Mellitus (DM) and accelerates its complications. Depression is significantly associated with poor dietary adherence, exercise adherence and medications and elevated HbA1c levels1. The influence of mood on the glycemic control via various psychophysiological pathways and the impact of poor glycemic control on emotional state deserve consideration. Objectives: To assess the level of depression in type 2 DM patients and to elucidate the significance of the relationship that exists between it and HbA1c levels. Materials & Methods: 150 type 2 diabetic subjects were drawn by the purposive sampling method from Ganesh Nursing Home, Vellore, and South India. Demographic data was collected after obtaining written informed consent. Beck's depression inventory (BDI) tool with a high reliability and validity is used for screening for depression, HbA1c levels an index of average blood glucose level over the previous 12 to 16 weeks, were retrieved from the Hindustan Diagnostic Laboratory, Vellore, South India. Results: The results show that there is a significant relationship between depression score and HbA1c level. There is a strong positive correlation (0.79) between depression and HbA1c. Of the 150 subjects studied, the mean BDI score was 9.90, SD 5.44; the HbA1c mean was 8.56, SD 1.55, the correlation was 0.79 significant at the 0.01 level, P value 0.05; the mean age is 52.01, SD 11.37. Depressed mood is significantly related to elevated HbA1c and gifts the high scorers with the state of poor glycemic control. Conclusion: The main goal of treatment in DM is absolute control of blood sugar. Variations in depressive mood, below the level of clinical depression are associated with meaningful differences in glycemic control; therefore the treatment of the depressed mood will lead to better metabolic control in DM. Acknowledgements: Dr. Semmal Syed Meerasa for supervising this study