Association of psychosocial factors with anxiety and depressive symptoms in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes

Objective: To investigate association of psychosocial. factors with anxiety and depressive symptoms in Chinese type 2 diabetes patients. Methods: Three hundred and four type 2 diabetes patients were inquired with a structured questionnaire about socio-demographic characteristics, psychological stress, coping styles, social support, and anxiety and depressive symptoms. Multiple regression analysis was performed to assess the association of these psychosocial factors with anxiety and depressive symptoms after controlling for potential confounding factors of sex, age, educational level, etc. Results: After adjusting for the potential confounding factors, multiple stepwise regression analysis found that anxiety symptoms were significantly positively associated with worrying about to be harmed by the disease, social/family crisis caused by the disease, worrying about declining in body/physical function, declined economic condition caused by the disease and negative coping styles; and depression symptoms were significantly positively associated with worrying about to be harmed by the disease, worrying about declining in body/physical function, social/family crisis caused by the disease, declined economic condition, negative coping styles, but negatively with active coping styles and subjective social support. Conclusion: Our findings show that perceived stress from disease, coping styles, social support are the independent determinants of anxiety and depressive symptoms among Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.