Last update:
21-Mar-2016

OBJECTIVE To explore the association between depressive symptoms and treatment satisfaction in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM).

METHOD The study was carried out on 162 consecutive patients with DM in the outpatient department of the Health Center of Sidirokastro between October 2012 and January 2013. The Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire (DTSQ) and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale were used to measure treatment satisfaction and depressive symptoms, respectively, and socio-economic and medical data were recorded. The Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis non parametric tests were used to detect significant differences and Spearman correlations were applied. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to identify factors significantly related to treatment satisfaction.

RESULTS The study patients had a mean age of 66.5 years and 55.6% were men. Women, people who were widowed, those with a low educational level and those with poor glucose control reported significantly higher depressive symptoms. Negative correlation was found between the overall DTSQ score and the Zung scale (r=-0.468; p<0.001) and between the overall DTSQ score and the blood level of glycosylated hemoglobin (r=-0.591; p<0.001). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that age (B=-0.052), glycosylated hemoglobin level (B=-2.931) and depressive symptoms (B=-0.111) were significant predictors of treatment satisfaction.

CONCLUSIONS Depressive symptoms were shown to be inversely associated with treatment satisfaction in outpatients with type 2 DM. The early diagnosis and treatment of the depressive symptomatology could contribute to the improvement of patient satisfaction and to better management of type 2 DM.

Key words: Questionnaire DTSQ, Type 2 diabetes mellitus, Zung scale.