Family bonds help African-Americans with diabetes

	Tweet

Families play an important role in how well African Americans with diabetes manage their disease, a study shows.

This implies that “ broadening the focus of care to include family relationships of patients with type 2 diabetes offers health care professionals a way to influence better diabetes management,” Catherine A. Chesla told AMN Health.

Chesla, a registered nurse and professor at the University of California in San Francisco, and her colleagues looked at a number of family factors, relationships and beliefs among 159 African Americans with type 2 diabetes. Their average age was 54, and they had had diabetes for more than 7years, on average.

As the team had expected, they found that “disease management is better in African-American patients from families believing optimistically that life has order, meaning, and manageability.”

These characteristics are associated with better patient morale, including fewer symptoms of depression as well as better self-reported general health and diabetes-related quality of life, according to the report in the medical journal Diabetes Care.

In contrast, unresolved family conflict and a negative family emotional tone had an adverse effect on diabetes control. “Emotional agility, specifically the family’s ability to resolve diabetes-related conflicts, was the key feature of family life” associated with good diabetes management, Chesla told AMN Health.

Summing up, she said, “Most diabetes management is in the patient’s hands. Including significant family members in treatment, and assisting patients and their family members to negotiate differences regarding diabetes care in the home ... holds promise for improving personal management of this complex disease.”

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, December 2004.

RELATED STORIES:
Diabetes and cancer: A shared biological basis   Low vitamin D linked to the metabolic syndrome in elderly people   Psychosocial factors may affect diabetes risk   Diabetes control crucial after heart attack   Pediatric Nutritionist Offers Tips to Help Kids Eat Healthy at School   World’s first stem cell bank opens   South Asia faces rising incidence of heart disease, diabetes   Treating Gum Disease Linked to Lower Medical Costs for Patients with Diabetes   Grapes reduce risk factors for heart disease and diabetes, U-M animal study shows   Mom’s Poor Diet Can Up Diabetes Risk in Child   Low testosterone seen common in diabetic men   Intranasal insulin may protect against diabetes

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]