Mexican Americans' diabetes symptom prevalence, burden, and clusters.
Alexandra A García, Eliezer Bose, Julie A Zuñiga and 1 others
PMID 30853074WHAT IT FOUND
Most Mexican American adults with type 2 diabetes reported three or more symptoms in a week.
High symptom burden was associated with worse quality of life and perceived severity, not A1c or BMI. Ask about symptoms and importance.
Key findings
01Nearly all participants reported at least one possible diabetes symptom in the prior week, and most reported three or more, with a mean of 14 symptoms.
02Symptom burden was associated with worse quality of life and higher perceived diabetes severity, but not with age, sex, acculturation, A1c, BMI, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, time since diagnosis, or number of concurrent medical conditions.
03The symptoms formed three clusters, and hierarchical clustering was chosen over k-means.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample was only 71 people, and the authors called the sample size a limitation. This was a secondary analysis of baseline data from a trial, not a test of the intervention. Symptoms were reported for the prior week, so they may have occurred at different times rather than together. The authors could not identify a single cause for all symptoms in any cluster. Seven symptoms were excluded from cluster analysis because at least one case had a missing value. The authors observed relatively high standard deviations, which they said could increase the chance of detecting a minimal effect size. The sample was Mexican Americans with type 2 diabetes in Texas, so results may not apply to other groups.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The article is listed as supported by NIH extramural research.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that these symptom clusters are caused by diabetes or that treating them improves quality of life. The study is a small baseline analysis, and the authors note symptoms could come from other conditions, medication effects, or complications.