RESUMEN
Background and Objectives: Type 2 diabetes has multifactorial causation, with obesity and metabolic dysregulation being two of them. Personality traits are also known to influence many metabolic processes and have been associated with the pathogenesis of diabetes as well as obesity. The objective of the study was to analyze the differences in the big five personality traits of normal-weight type 2 diabetes mellitus, obese type 2 diabetes mellitus patients, and healthy controls. Methods: A total of 70 subjects were included in the study after outpatient-based screening, of which 40 were type 2 diabetes patients (20 obese and 20 normal weight) and 30 were healthy controls. After the anthropometric screening, the personality assessment of the subjects was done using the Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). The differences in the scores of each trait for every group were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey's honest significant difference (HSD) post hoc corrections. The difference in the scores between controls and diabetes patients was also compared by independent samples t-test. Results: The neuroticism score was significantly higher in both the normal-weight diabetes group (P = 0.01) and obese diabetes group (P = 0.02) as compared to the control group. All diabetes patients when compared with healthy controls had a significantly higher neuroticism score (P = 0.00) while their score of openness was significantly lower (P = 0.035) than healthy controls. Interpretation and Conclusion: This study identifies the association of personality with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The diabetes patients have higher neuroticism and lesser openness to experience as traits of personality. Importantly, this association is present irrespective of the obesity status of the patients.
RESUMEN
Alterations in the autonomic cardiovascular control have been implicated to play an important etiologic role in preeclampsia. The present study was designed to evaluate autonomic functions in preeclamptic pregnant women and compare the values with normotensive pregnant and healthy nonpregnant controls. Assessment of autonomic functions was done by cardiovascular reflex tests and by analysis of heart rate variability (HRV). Cardiovascular reflex tests included deep breathing test (DBT) and lying to standing test (LST). HRV was analyzed in both time and frequency domain for quantifying the tone of autonomic nervous system to the heart. The time domain measures included standard deviation of normal R-R intervals (SDNN) and square root of mean squared differences of successive R-R intervals (RMSSD). In the frequency domain we measured total power (TP), high frequency (HF) power, low frequency (LF) power, and LF/HF ratio. Cardiovascular reflex tests showed a significant parasympathetic deficit in preeclamptic women. Among parameters of HRV, preeclamptic group had lower values of SDNN, RMSSD, TP, HF, and LF (ms2) and higher value of LF in normalised units along with high LF/HF ratio compared to normotensive pregnant and nonpregnant controls. Furthermore, normotensive pregnant women had lower values of SDNN, TP, and LF component in both absolute power and normalised units compared to nonpregnant females. The results confirm that normal pregnancy is associated with autonomic disturbances which get exaggerated in the state of preeclampsia.