An assessment of perceived wellbeing in a diabetic population

Perceived wellbeing in a diabetes mellitus population was assessed using the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) in a group of diabetic patients aged 30–40 years (n=300) and age‐matched healthy controls (n=143). The NHP grades wellbeing into six categories: emotional reaction (ER), social isolation (SI), energy (E), pain (P), sleep (S) and physical mobility (PM). The Kruskal‐Wallis H test was used to compare patients with the control scores for each category. In all categories, the scores of patients were significant greater than controls, indicating reduced perception of wellbeing: ER 13.3 versus 10.5*, SI 8.5 v 6.1*; E 21.2 v 12.4*; P 7.9 v 2.7*; S12.2 v 9.3*; PM 3.6 v 1.5*; (patients v controls; *p<0.05).

Analysis of patient characteristics in relation to whether they scored positively or not on the NHP revealed a female preponderance, but no association with diabetes control, duration of diabetes, age at onset of diabetes or complications, except the presence of nephropathy.