Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Erin C. Dunn, MPH, Education Development Center, Center for College Health and Safety, 55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA 02458, 617-618-2324, edunn@edc.org, Alisa K. Lincoln, PhD, MPH, Social and Behavioral Sciences Department, Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany Street, T2W, Boston, MA 02118, and E. Sally Rogers, ScD, Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Boston University, 940 Commonwealth Avenue, West, Boston, MA 02215.

Decades of empirical literature have documented that individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) are significantly more likely than the general population to have severe and chronic physical conditions, including Type II diabetes. Although Type II diabetes is a likely contributor of increased disability and poorer well-being, little knowledge currently exists to describe the consequences or compounding effects of living with diabetes on individuals with SMI. The current study sought to address this limitation by examining the impact of adult-onset diabetes on the mental status, functioning, quality of life, and recovery of individuals with SMI. The presentation will review findings from this qualitative study of men and women with schizophrenia-spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, and major depression who have been living with diabetes or pre-diabetes for different lengths of time. Participants completed a semi-structured open-ended interview where they were queried about: (a) the relationship and perceived interactions between their diabetes and psychiatric symptoms, treatment, role functioning, quality of life, and recovery; (b) the ways in which living with diabetes affects them in their daily life; (c) how they manage and cope with having diabetes and SMI, and (d) the information, services, or other supports they need in order to more effectively cope with their co-occurring disorders. Results suggest that people with SMI primarily organize the impact of having diabetes in terms of behavior change. Descriptive, service utilization, and other health-related data were collected and will be examined. Impact of the results on health promotion, intervention planning, and future research will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

• -Articulate how individuals with SMI describe the relationship and perceived interactions between their diabetes and psychiatric symptoms and treatment, functioning, quality of life, recovery, and daily life
• -List the factors that assist or prevent people with SMI from managing and coping with these co-occurring disorders
• -Identify the information, services, or other supports people with SMI describe needing in order to more effectively cope and live with the combined effects of their diabetes and mental illness

Keywords: Mental Disorders, Diabetes

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered