Paper: Stress, Coping, Resilience, and Adaptive Outcomes in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes (19th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice)

Tuesday, 8 July 2008: 3:35 PM

Min Feng Huang, RN, MSN , School of Nursing, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

Mary Courtney, PhD , School of Nursing, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

Helen Edwards, PhD , School of Nursing, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

Jan McDowell, PhD , Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Centre for Health Research (Nursing), Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

Learning Objective 1: understand the relationships among diabetes-related distress, diabetes-related coping strategies, and resilience in people with type 2 diabetes.

Learning Objective 2: understand the relationships among diabetes-related distress, diabetes-related coping strategies, and blood sugar control in people with type 2 diabetes.

Background: Diabetes is a burdensome disease for countries, societies, and individuals. People with diabetes need to face the impact of a health condition and adapt to illness outcomes. Resilience is a dynamic process whereby individuals present adaptive function in the face of significant adversity or stress. Despite the growth of stress and coping research and its implications for health policy and practice, little research has explored the relationships among resilience, stress, coping, and adaptive outcomes in people with type 2 diabetes. Objective: This study aims to explore the relationships among diabetes-related distress, diabetes-related coping strategies, resilience, and blood sugar control in adults with type 2 diabetes. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The Problem Areas In Diabetes (PAID) was used to assess diabetes-specific emotional distress. The Diabetes Coping Measure (DCM) was used to measure the use of specific diabetes coping strategies. The level of HbA1c was collected to as an important clinical indicator of blood sugar control. Participants consisted of 205 adults with type 2 diabetes attending endocrine outpatient clinics of three hospitals in Taiwan. Results: The findings indicated that resilience was significantly and positively correlated with the coping strategies of tackling spirit (r = .40, P < .01). Resilience was significantly and negatively correlated with the coping strategies of avoidance (r = -.14, P < .05). In addition, the HbA1c level was significantly and positively correlated with the coping strategies of passive resignation (r= .31, p< .01) and diabetes-related distress (r= .14, p< .05). Conclusions: The findings contribute to our conceptual understanding of resilience in adults with type 2 diabetes. This study will help health-care teams to develop interventions in order to improve resilience in adults with diabetes.

See more of: Strategies to Improve the Health of Diabetics
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