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Behavioral and Psychological Factors in Buffering Diabetes-related Disability Development
Yi-Hsuan Tsai1, Li-Lun Chuang2, Yau-Jiunn Lee2
1Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Background:
Diabetes is associated with disability development. Healthy behaviors and psychosocial support can help patients manage their disease.
Purpose:
To examine the role of various behavioral and psychological factors in buffering the effect of diabetes on disability development over time in Taiwanese adults.
Methods:
Data on 5,131 adults aged ≥50 years were obtained from the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging. A cohort sequential multilevel design was employed to analyze the association between behavioral and psychosocial factors and the risk of disability over a 11-year period.
Results:
In patients with diabetes, having social support and exercising more than six times a week were associated with 4% and 49% reductions in the risk of disability, respectively (βdiabetes*socialsupport = -0.285, p = .006; βdiabetes*exercise3 = -2.612, p = .007). Exercising more than six times a week had an additional significant protective effect against disability development per year (βdiabetes*exercises3*age = -0.241, p = .038). Depression did not significantly interact with diabetes. However, a trajectory analysis revealed that individuals who had both diabetes and depression had the highest disability score from middle age among all participants.
Conclusions:
Engaging in frequent exercise is the most influential factor for reducing the risk of disability in patients with diabetes. Social support provides an additional benefit for disability prevention in individuals with diabetes.
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