Psychosocial characteristics of diabetic students at Sporting Students Hospital in Alexandria.
Author: Mounir GM, Abolfotouh MA.
Source:
The Journal of the Egyptian Public Health Association, 8(3&4).
Type 1 diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that may have an impact on
children's psychosocial adjustment. The aim of the present work was to study the
psychosocial characteristics of diabetic students and to determine predictors of
diabetes control. A cross-sectional study of 150 diabetic students who attended
the diabetic school health insurance clinic of Sporting Student's Hospital in
Alexandria governorate within a period of one month was conducted. A pre-designed
interviewing questionnaire was used to collect--from the child and/or his/her
parents--personal data, data about the child social relationships and school and
disease characteristics. School adjustment index and stress symptom index were
used to assess the school performance and the stress symptoms respectively. The
result revealed that 34% of the diabetic students were maladjusted to school and
31.3% were symptomatic based on the stress index. Generally speaking, diabetic
children reported good relationship to peers (65.3%), parents (57.3%) and
siblings (51.3%), most of them have good friendship (82%) and those involved in
one or more kind of hobby were about three fourth of all. Both age (P<0.05), sex
(P<0.05), social class (P<0.05), disease duration (P<0.05) and stress symptoms
(P<0.05) were all significantly associated with the disease control. However
after adjustment for other variables, students of low social class families
(OR=5.1, p<0.01) and those of longer disease duration (6-10 years) (OR=7.9,
p<0.05) were significant predictors of diabetes control. In conclusion diabetes
per se might have no significant association with academic performance or social
relationship. Students with large diabetic duration-especially those of low
social class families--are at increased risk of suboptimal glycaemic control and
should be targeted for interventional strategies.