Alexithymia among elderlypatients with diabetes
Abstract
Objective: To determine alexithymic characteristics and affecting factors in the elderly with diabetes mellitus.
Methods: This study was planned as a cross-sectional and descriptive study and was conducted in a state Hospital with 120 elderly patients with diabetes. Data were collected using a personal information form and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale.
Results: Alexithymia was found in 75.8% of the elderly with diabetes mellitus. It was determined that patients experienced higher than average difficulty in describing and identifying feelings. They also had more externally-oriented thinking styles. Patients’ income levels, family structure and illness duration affected their manifestation of alexithymic characteristics.
Conclusion: Majority of elderly patients with diabetes exhibited alexithymic characteristics. However, these were not shown to be associated with sex, age, marital, educational or professional status. Â In addition, no connection was found between alexithymia and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), body mass index (BMI), postprandial glucose (PBG), and the treatment and complications of diabetes mellitus.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12669/pjms.296.2159
How to cite this:Hintistan S, Cilingir D, Birinci N. Alexithymia among elderly patients with diabetes. Pak J Med Sci 2013;29(6):1344-1348. Â Â doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12669/pjms.296.2159
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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