Identification of risk factors for suffering fear of hypoglycemia in type 1 Diabetes Mellitus patients.

Hypoglycemia is one of the main burdens for type I Diabetes Mellitus (DM I) patients. The consequences of hypoglycemia can be quite unpleasant due to the variety of disagreeable physical and psychological symptoms it triggers. The patient's previous experience with hypoglycemia episodes will condition his psychological reaction to future episodes, promoting behavioral modifications that associate with poor glycemic control and worse prognosis, and even with developing psychological disorders, leading to fear of hypoglycemia (FH). To be able to provide tailored prevention and treatment of patients with FH it is necessary to identify the risk factors in DM I patients. We developed and validated the FH-15 scale, a novel instrument to assess FH, which showed good concurrent and predictive validity in DM I patients. In this work we aim to identify the risk factors for suffering FH by detecting DM I patients with FH using the FH-15 scale and then analyzing the association of clinical and sociodemographic variables. We found that age, needing help to resolve an episode of hypoglycemia, and a perceived lack of social support are risk factors for suffering FH.
(© 2014 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)