RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To examine the prevalence of anxiety in an outpatient clinic sample type 2 diabetics in Trinidad. Additionally, this study aims to examine gender differences in anxiety, whether anxiety levels differed among age groups and whether anxiety was related to hyperglycemia and having a coexisting medical complication such as hypertension and heart disease. DESIGN AND METHODS: 128 type 2 diabetics attending outpatient clinics on designated clinic days for their routine appointment were surveyed. Their demographics, levels of anxiety, blood glucose levels and coexisting medical complications were measured. Pearsons correlations and t-tests were used to analyse the data. RESULTS: 19.5% of the sample population had mild to moderate levels of anxiety. The analyses indicated that diabetics with coexisting medical conditions had higher anxiety levels (p = .038); and women were more likely to have higher levels of anxiety than men (p = .002). CONCLUSION: Anxiety may potentially exacerbate the complications associated with diabetes. Attention should be given to the psychological symptoms associated with type 2 diabetes and the implementation of screening for anxiety at health clinics in an effort to effectively treat type 2 diabetes in Trinidad.
