Exploring Problem Areas of Elderly Patients with Diabetes and the Support Provided by Their Family

Objective: Diabetes increases problems in emotional areas particularly among the elderly patients by aggravating negative emotions such as loss, anxiety and fear and makes these patients need higher level of family support. This study aims at exploring problematic areas of the elderly diabetic patients and their family support levels. Methods: The data of this descriptive study were collected by the researcher by conducting a face to face interview with 218 elderly diabetic patients who presented to Endocrine Polyclinics of State Hospital between October 2015 and October 2016. To collect the data, Patient Information Form, Problem Areas in Diabetes Scale (PAID) and Hensarling's Diabetes Family Support Scale (HDFSS) were used. Results: Although problem areas among the patients were found to be fewer than expected; it was found that there were significant differences between problem areas and sex, diabetes time, treatment type, length of oral antidiabetic medicine use and insulin use, development of diabetes-related complication and hospitalization due to these complications in the recent year (p<0.05). Besides, the family support levels of the elderly patients were below the moderate level, and the number of individuals the patients live together with, the number of people receiving support due to diabetes and the number of people who received support from their spouses because of diabetes was a significant variable that affected HDFSS total score and the subscale scores (p<0.05). Conclusion: For a better diabetes management, sex and diabetes related variables should be taken into consideration while delivering health services and increasing family support levels can make positive contributions to the mood of the elderly patients.