Summaries

Essential question for research: How can I educate others on the different types of diabetes and how they affect a person physically (human body and pancreas) and emotionally? Also what is diabetes and what is the difference between the physical and emotional effects of type 1 and the effects of type 2?

Why are quality of life issues important in diabetes?- Article 1

In 1948 the World Health Organization classified the well being of health on a different level then just physically. Recently, there has been an interest in quality of life issues. There has been an effect of psychosocial factors on physical health.

People that have diabetes are challenged by their disease’s constant burden in management and maintaining it. It is a non-stop demanding situation 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Taking insulin and other types of diabetic therapy can affect the quality of life, physically or emotionally, either positively or negatively. In a physical state, it can positively reduce high blood sugar or negatively increase low blood sugar symptoms. Psychosocial issues can affect the physical health. Depression and other issues can affect self-care behaviors, in turn, developing long-term problems. Emotional factors can determine the amount of self-management.

How is quality of life measured?

The quality of life is multidimensional. It includes an individual’s insight on their physical, emotional and social well-being is imperative part towards happiness and satisfaction. There is a significant amount of research that has been conducted on the health status on overall life satisfaction and health-related value of life. The ability to cope with disabilities and limitations can affect someone’s insight on satisfaction of life.

There are two approaches to health-related measurement of the quality of life: generic and disease-specific. The generic method engages the use of measures related across health and infirmity groups. The Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) tries to record and discover behavioral dysfunction caused by diseases. The generic method is used in this.  There are several types of surveys that are conducted in this study that try to assess the health-related well-being of one-self. This study also measures emotional and physical indicators, mobility, and physical activity.

Emotional and quality-of-life aspects of diabetes management- Article 2

Diabetics are needed to be mathematicians, physicians, personal trainers, and dieticians all rolled up into one, daily. Diabetics commonly feel frustrated of overwhelmed by the daily aggravations of diabetes management. It can begin to feel like a burden to most diabetics. People diagnosed with this disease often may feel anger, guilt, frustration, or even the “Why me?” feeling. This can cause these patients to be unmotivated to perform self-care tasks. Knowing this, makes is not surprising that diabetes is associated with impaired health-related quality of life (HRQOL). There is a consistent finding during many cases of studies that prove how diabetes is associated with HRQOL. Medical and psychosocial characteristics of diabetes may possibly portray a negative affect HRQOL. Impaired HRQOL negatively influence self-management of diabetes. The concept of HRQOL in diabetes is still blurred, which makes evaluation troublesome.

The Emotional World of the Diabetic Patient- Article 3

The emotional world of an average diabetic patient depends on the clinician’s treatment and understanding of their patients. It is vitally important that what is done for the patient is the right thing. Otherwise this could cause emotional and physical problems. “Denial, intellectualization, and displacement are defined and instances of their application in medical work are discovered. Being well-appointed with a greater understanding of this psychological world of the patient can help the clinician remain attuned to the patient and help them control their diabetes on a physical level and an emotional state. Having diabetes is something a patient can not control by themselves, they need support and help from their clinician, friends and family. Receiving this help and support, in turn, can better their chances in controlling their Physiological problems due to diabetes.