Psychosocial disturbances in patients with diabetic macular edema

Hina Sultan; Ghulam Ishaq; Muhammad Mueen

Abstract
Objective: To assess the psychosocial disturbances in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME).
Methodology: Type I and Type II DM patients with macular edema in both eyes with visual acuity lower than 6/6 were included in this study. Visual acuity test (Snellen Chart) was used. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) was used to detect DME. Daily Living Activities Dependent on Vision Scale, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21and Three Items Loneliness Scale were used.
Results: Correlation analysis indicated that vision dependent tasks significantly negatively related to stress (r= -.76, p<0.01), anxiety (r= -.66, p<0.01), depression (r= -.53, p<0.01), self-esteem (r= -.77, p<0.01) and loneliness r= -.56, p<0.05. Stress, anxiety, depression, and self-esteem had high positive relationships with each other but weak associations were seen among participants in their experience of feeling lonely. Participants in late adulthood were more stressed out F(2,285)=13.1, p<0.05; anxious F(2,285)=6.2, p<0.05; depressed F(2,285)=9.4, p<0.05; and lonely F(2,285)=14.0, p<0.05 than those in early and middle adulthood. The averages of stress, anxiety and depression reached to clinical levels (stress=26-33; anxiety=15-19; severe depression=21-27) in late adulthood. Late adulthood group showed moderate levels of loneliness while it was of mild levels in other groups. However, participants in early adulthood had lower self-esteem than other age groups.
Conclusion: Diabetic macular edema results in serious disturbances to perform daily tasks and affects psycho-social well-being of patients severely.

Key words: Diabetic macular edema, visual dependence, depression, self-esteem, social loneliness.

ABOUT JOURNAL About Publisher Contact Us Editorial & Peer Review Process	POLICIES Privacy Policy Editorial Policy Author's Rights and Obligations Conflict of Interest Policy Plagiarism Policy Advertising Policy	STATEMENTS Terms of Use Author's Rights and Obligations Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement Protection of Research Participants (Statement On Human And Animal Rights) License Information

This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access. The articles in Rawal Medical Journal are open access articles licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

Indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, WHO Index Medicus IMEMR, Emromedex, Pakmedinet, ExtraMED and Tehqeeqat

How to cite this article

	Open Access and Peer-reviewed
Home Journal Issues Guide for Authors Editorial Board Aims & Scope About Journal News & Announcements