Psychological impact of type-1 diabetes mellitus on parents: an exploratory study from North India

Due to its early age of onset, type-1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) poses major burden of care on to the family members, especially parents. To study the psychological morbidity, social support, coping strategies, level of dysfunction and quality of life in parents of subjects with type-1 diabetes mellitus. This study was carried out in a tertiary care hospital with cross sectional design. Fifty parents of 50 subjects with T1DM were assessed by General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), Social support Questionnaire, Coping strategy check list, Dysfunction Analysis Questionnaire and WHO Quality of Life-Bref Scale. Those with GHQ score ≥2 were interviewed in detail by a psychiatrist to determine the presence/absence of the psychiatric illness. Mean (±SD) age of the children was 14.09 ± 5.43 years at the time of assessment and the age (mean ± SD) at diagnosis was 10.3 ± 5.16 years. Age (mean±SD) of parents was 43.2 ± 8.73 years. Mothers (N = 27) outnumbered fathers (N = 23). Nearly two-third of parents (64%) had psychological morbidity. Of the 32 parents found to be GHQ positive, more than half (N = 17) had diagnosable psychiatric disorder. Parents who more frequently used internalization and externalization as a coping mechanism to overcome the stress of chronic illness in their children suffered from psychological morbidity. Parents with psychological morbidity had more dysfunction in social, personal and cognitive domains and also had significantly poorer quality of life in the physical health, psychological health and general well being domains. Hence, it can be concluded that T1DM in children and adolescents leads to poor parental mental health.