A new study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University at Buffalo looked at how feelings of hopelessness and “fatalism” about diabetes might affect long-term health outcomes.
They focused on African American adults living with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes fatalism refers to a belief that complications or death from diabetes are unavoidable, no matter what actions a person takes.
This feeling of helplessness has been linked to lower motivation to manage diabetes, less healthy behavior, and worse health outcomes. In this study, researchers wanted to know if fatalism could actually predict worse health or poorer quality of life over time.
The study followed 200 African American adults for 12 months. These individuals had high blood sugar levels that were difficult to control and had been living with diabetes for an average of 15 years. The study was part of a randomized clinical trial across four medical sites in the southeastern United States. The average age of participants was 56.
Researchers were especially interested in whether fatalism was related to three main outcomes: blood sugar levels (measured by HbA1c), blood pressure, and health-related quality of life. They found that fatalism did not have any clear link to blood sugar or blood pressure.
However, people who had higher fatalism scores did tend to report lower mental health quality of life during the study period. This suggests that feeling hopeless about diabetes might not worsen physical health directly, but could seriously affect a person’s emotional we…
Interestingly, the study had some issues in the way the data were presented. The baseline characteristics of the 200 participants sometimes used percentages that don’t mathematically add up with a sample size of 200.
For example, some categories like marital status and income had decimal percentages that would only be possible with much larger groups of 1,000 or 10,000 people. This raises concerns about how the data was processed or reported.
There were also inconsistencies in how key scores were defined. The emotional distress subscale, for instance, was said to range from 5 to 50 in one section, and from 5 to 30 in another. Mistakes like these make it harder to trust the accuracy of the results.
Despite using several statistical models, the researchers found few strong links between fatalism and actual health outcomes. The only consistent relationship appeared between fatalism and reduced mental health-related quality of life. A related factor—emotional distress—also showed some small connection with blood sugar control and quality of life.
In short, this study suggests that feeling hopeless or unfairly burdened by diabetes may not make blood sugar or blood pressure worse, but it can lower a person’s emotional well-being. This is important because mental health can affect motivation, energy, and overall quality of life for people living with a long-term condition like diabetes.
However, due to the unclear or inconsistent data reporting, the findings should be treated with caution. More research is needed to confirm these results and explore how emotional health connects to diabetes outcomes.
Still, the idea of including emotional support in diabetes care seems valuable. Programs that help people build hope and coping skills may improve not only how they feel but how they manage their condition over time.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies about diabetes and vitamin B12, and the right diet for people with type 2 diabetes.
For more health information, please see recent studies about how to eat smart with diabetes, and turmeric and vitamin D: a duo for blood pressure control in diabetic patients.
The study is published in Journal of General Internal Medicine.
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