Quality of life and self-esteem of Egyptian children with type I Diabetes

6^th World Nursing and Healthcare Conference

August 15-17, 2016 London, UK

Shewikar Farrag, Youmna Sabri, Ashraf Sharkawy and Hala el boraie

Psychiatric Medicine Department,
child department Mansoura University &
Pediatric Nursing Department at Faculty of Nursing, Egypt

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most common chronic diseases in child & adolescence and requires special self-care behaviors throughout life. Living with the requirements related to glycemic control, insulin therapy, diet plan and physical activity may have a significant impact on the psychological functioning of not only the patients but their families as well. Aim: The present study had the purpose for the evaluation of the health related quality of life (HRQoL) and self-esteem (SE) of children &adolescents with diabetes mellitus type 1, analyzing the relation between these constructs in this population and comparing these results with those of non-diabetic ones, and finding if there is association between metabolic control (Hb A1c) and these psychosocial correlates (HRQoL & SE). Materials & Methods: Study participants included parents and their children/adolescents with type 1 diabetes who were 10�18years old. The participants have had T1DM for more than two years. The control group consisted of 42 healthy children 10 � 18 years old. Peds QL 4.0 Generic Core Scales (GCS) were designed to measure the core health dimensions in both healthy and patient populations. PedsQL 3.0 diabetic module (DM) was developed to measure diabetes-specific HRQoL, for youths with T1DM. Hare Area-Specific Self-Esteem Scale, measures adolescents� feelings about their worth and importance among peers, as students, and as family members. Results: The mean total HRQoL scale scores (child self-report and parent-proxy reports) were 75.42, 72.37 for diabetics and 94.80, 96.83 for healthy ones, with significant difference (<0.001). Also, diabetics showed lower self-esteem (2.31) than healthy ones (2.05) as higher scores indicate lower self-esteem. However, there were significant negative correlations for Peds QL 4.0 (GCS) both child and parent report and self-esteem scale scores in diabetics (table 4). While, table 5 shows positive correlation between HbA1c levels and self-esteem scores and insignificant negative correlation between HbA1c levels and school function scores in Peds QoL among diabetics. Conclusion: Children with diabetes had lower quality of life than healthy ones in the physical, emotional and social domains. The SE and QoL concepts were correlated, i.e. the better the quality of life of diabetic children the higher the self-esteem. Uncontrolled diabetes (increased level of HbA1c, 8.4%) did not affect Peds QoL except for school function domain, but with insignificant statistical level. While, this suboptimal metabolic control affect self-esteem of children and adolescents.