HealthDay News — Adults with type 1 diabetes have a higher prevalence of depressive and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms than those with type 2 diabetes or without diabetes, according to a research letter published online Oct. 20 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Tianyu Cao, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, and colleagues characterized the prevalence and severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms among adults with type 1 diabetes in the general U.S. population using data from the National Health Interview Survey. The study included 58,106 U.S. adults, including 326 and 5,802 with type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes, respectively (weighted proportion, 0.6 and 8.9 percent, respectively).
The researchers found that the prevalence of moderate or severe depressive symptoms was 17.1 percent in adults with type 1 diabetes compared with 12.4 and 6.6 percent in adults with type 2 diabetes and in those without diabetes, respectively. For moderate or severe GAD symptoms, the prevalence was 16.2 percent in those with type 1 diabetes compared with 8.7 and 6.1 percent in those with type 2 diabetes and without diabetes, respectively. The prevalence of moderate or severe depressive and GAD symptoms was highest among women, those with less than a high school education, and those younger than 65 years among adults with type 1 diabetes.
“Better mental health screening, especially in high-risk populations, is essential for improving diabetes management and quality of life,” the authors write.
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