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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Karen Wohlheiter, MS¹, Faith Dickerson, PhD, MPH², Lisa Dixon, MD, MPH³, and Deborah Medoff, PhD³. (1) Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland, Baltimore, 737 W. Lombard St., Rm 560, Baltimore, MD 21201, 410-706-6638, kwohlhei@psych.umaryland.edu, (2) Department of Psychology, Sheppard Pratt, 6501 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21285, (3) Department of Pyschiatry, University of Maryland, 737 W. Lombard Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

Background: Diabetes is a persistent and complex metabolic disease that affects 4% of the US general population and is associated with decrements in quality of life. Persons with serious mental illness are at significantly greater risk for diabetes than those in the general population. However, there has been little investigation of the effects of diabetes on subjective well being and functional status in this population.

Methods: Non-geriatric adult outpatients with schizophrenia or major mood disorder (N=355), were interviewed about their medical conditions, subjective satisfaction with life domains, and health-related quality of life. There were 201 participants with type 2 diabetes and 154 without diabetes.

Results: Patients with diabetes were more likely than the non-diabetes patients to have high blood pressure, heart disease, and cancer, but not respiratory problems. The diabetes vs. non diabetes groups did not differ in their satisfaction with family, social relations, finances, daily activities, or safety. However, the diabetes group was less satisfied with physical health. On a measure of health-related quality of life, the Medical Outcomes Survey Short Form-12, patients were diabetes reported greater overall impairment in both physical and mental health. The differences on the mental health index persisted with adjusting for non-diabetes comorbid medical conditions.

Discussion: These results suggest that persons with serious mental illness and diabetes suffer from reduced health-related quality of life that affects both physical and mental domains. Medical providers need to be attentive to the high burden of disease experienced by persons with both of these conditions.

Learning Objectives: