“Coping Mechanisms of Diabetes Mellitus Patients”
A. R. Jacalne, A. Sagucio, H. J. Sanchez, A. J. Tan, J. P. Valera
Introduction
Many restaurants and fast-food chains
nowadays introduce products that contain
low sugar or no sugar at all. Also, there
are many advertisements that promote
healthy lifestyle and wellness. Some
manufacturing companies even prefer to
produce goods that are sugar-free and
those that ease the problems of some
patients who suffer from imbalances in
their sugar-level.
But despite all of these circumstances,
diabetes is still one of the most leading
causes of death, not only in the
Philippines but also worldwide. What are
the factors that cause the increasing
number of people being inflicted by
diabetes? Why is this continuously
happening? What are the methods needed
to be done in order to decrease the
number of diabetic patients? What should
diabetic patients consider or follow to be
able to cope up with their condition?
Should this condition hinder the diabetic
patient’s relationship or connection to the
environment, specifically their
interpersonal relationship?
When doctors say “diabetes” they usually
mean “diabetes mellitus”. Diabetes
mellitus results when pancreatic beta cells
(which are found in the islet of
Langerhans) are unable to maintain
adequate insulin secretion to prevent
hyperglycemia. A combination of genetic
and environmental factors causes the
underlying beta-cell failure.
More than 150 million people in the
world have diabetes, the occurrence of
which is increasing so rapidly that the
management of diabetes is a priority in all
branches of medicine. The new therapies
and rapidly evolving evidence are making
us all re-examine our practice. We can no
longer be one-dimensional "sugar
doctors" but, instead, must address the
three dimensions of cardiovascular risk
prevention: glycemia, lipid levels, and
blood pressure. So many factors, due to
the dynamic change in the medical field,
are needed to be studied to be able to treat
diabetes but still end up not knowing the
complete “panacea” which could put an
end to this disease and stop the increasing
number of people inflicted by this
disease. In the end the saying,
“prevention is better than cure” is still the
best preventing factor to for this disease.
In the study conducted by Nathan (2002),
he concluded that “…Although effective
treatments to reduce the long-term
complications of diabetes are available,
the complex interventions required and
the size of the diabetic population have
made the application of such therapies
problematic. The treatment of patients
with diabetes of relatively recent onset
should include lifestyle interventions to
address hyperglycemia, hypertension, and
dyslipidemia.” He added, however, that If
such interventions do not achieve the
aims established by controlled clinical
trials, “[he] recommend accelerated
implementation of the known effective
treatments.”
Nathan (2002) also stated that “if after a
three-to-six-month program of diet and
increased exercise, glycosylated
hemoglobin values are not less than 7
percent, medications should be added.
One could consider using metformin as a
first agent, since it is less likely to cause
weight gain.” The addition of insulin or
other injected medications should be
considered. Renewed or continued
attention to lifestyle adjustments should
be encouraged at every step of diabetes
intervention to try to limit the weight gain
that accompanies treatment with most of
the medications.
As stated by Nathan (2002) in his report,
the guidelines are supported by credible
and outstanding data gathered from
different and comprehensive clinical
trials while others are studied by using
persons that are not afflicted by the
disease which is caused by the excess
carbohydrates in the body and the
inability to oxidize carbohydrates—
diabetes mellitus.
Some of these guidelines are supported
by excellent-quality data from clinical
trials, whereas others are based on
extrapolation from studies in persons
without diabetes or epidemiologic data.
Their implementation should not be
delayed, even though the data to support
them remain incomplete.
According to Robbins (1957), diabetes
mellitus is a disease of middle and late
life, although an appreciable number of
cases begin in childhood.
There is a definite female preponderance
or superiority which becomes more
marked with advancing age, so that in the
sixth decade of life, the ratio of females
to males is 3 to 1.
Organs involved during the infliction of
diabetes mellitus (in Layman’s term, is
the excess carbohydrates in the body and
also the inability of the body to oxidize
carbohydrates) in an organism are the
pancreas, mainly the beta cells in islets of
Langerhans which elaborate insulin,
second organ is the anterior pituitary
which has an important diabetogenic
action and the third organ is adrenal
cortex which also asserts a diabetogenic
effect (Robbins, 1957).
The main objective of this study, which is
why it was being studied, is to introduce
the readers of this research the effects of
diabetes mellitus to people afflicted by
this disease involving excesses of
carbohydrates. This research also shows
how our respondents cope with their
disease and how diabetes mellitus affect
the respondents’ interpersonal
relationship.
Methods
Materials
Respondents:
A total of twenty (20) selected diabetes
mellitus respondents were chosen to be
part of this study. The researchers made
sure of their condition by conducting
initial interviews before the actual survey
procedures. The range of the respondents’
age is from 15 to 70 yrs. old and all
residing in Central Luzon. The
researchers also carefully controlled the
gender of the respondents wherein there
was an even distribution between the
male and female to avoid inequalities on
the outcome of the study.
Questionnaire:
The twenty (20) respondents were
requested to answer the survey form
prepared by the researchers, which
comprises two parts: the first part was the
coping strategies that the respondents
perform to deal with their condition. They
were asked to indicate the kind of
medicine, and lifestyle they apply in their
lives. The second part comprises the
effects of the respondents’ condition in
their interpersonal relationship.
Instrument Used:
The instrument used mainly in this
research is the selected survey method.
This method was chosen in order to
gather fast and credible information from
randomly chosen respondents within a
short period of time. The researchers
formulated the set of questions pre-tested
to a Biochemistry and English professors.
Books, journals, magazines, newspaper
articles, electronic references and other
relevant studies were also used as
reference to support the presiding topic.
Procedures
This study has introduced different
coping mechanisms or strategies
exhibited by the selected respondents.
This study also introduced how diabetes
mellitus affects the interpersonal
relationship of the respondents with their
peers.
The researchers also constructed a
survey-questionnaire form to gather the
necessary data. The way of conducting
the survey was by personal and telephone
interview.
Discussions and Results
The study was preformed to evaluate the
coping mechanisms that Diabetes
Mellitus patients. Upon conducting series
of survey, the researchers tabulated the
results using percentage of frequency and
transforming it to diagram.
CONCLUSIONS
This study allows the following
conclusions to be drawn:
1. Based on the results, for Figure
2,3, and 4; the respondents had
reported that they always undergo
check-up (based on Figure 2),
most of the respondents take
synthetic medicines orally (based
on Figure 3) and respondents rely
from ampalaya extract (based on
Figure 4) as the herbal aid for
their condition.
The generalization was drawn
from this conclusion that
respondents believed that medical
check-ups serve as the eye-opener
or monitor for their present
condition, the respondents take
synthetic medicines orally as they
believed this is safer compared to
that are injectable synthetic
medicines and respondents resorts
on ampalaya extracts to any other
herbal extracts as they believed
this is more efficient, empirical
and factual as ampalaya extracts
are proven by many health
documentation and living
testimonials.
2. Based on the outcome of the
survey, the respondents are able to
cope in their condition by
monitoring their sugar level
through the aid of a physician
(based on Figure 7). Most of the
respondents also prefer low-fat
diet (based on Figure 8) and most
of the respondents also exercise
(based on Figure 9).
This induction was made because
of the following reasons:
• Most of the respondents
need to monitor their sugar
level in order to avoid
complications (based on
Figure 7).
• Most of the respondents
prefer low-fat diet over
high-fiber diet because
they believed that through
this diet their condition
will alleviate (based on
Figure 8)
• Most of the respondents
exercise in order for them
to maintain a healthy and
sound body even their
condition is quite
dangerous (based on
Figure 9)
3. The researchers concluded that
persons affected by diabetes
mellitus are having poor social
life or in other words their
condition is affecting their social
lives.
The reason for this outcome of
our survey is that the person
afflicted by diabetes mellitus
becomes shy or afraid to socialize
due to fear of discrimination thus
causing them to have level of self-
confidence and self-esteem.
REFERENCES
[1]
Leahy, J.L. “Medical Management of
Diabetes Mellitus”. The New England
Journal of Medicine. 17 August 2000
[2]
Nathan, D.M. “Initial Management of
Glycemia in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus”. The
New England of Journal Medicine. 24
October 2002
[3]
Robbinsons, S. Textbook of Pathology
with Clinical Applications: Saunders
Company. 1957.
[4]
Saunders, W.B. Dorland’s Illustrated
Medical Dictionary: Saunders Company.
1974.