Prevalence of diabetes distress and cross-cultural reliability of DDS-17 scale in rural Haryana

BACKGROUND: Diabetes distress associated with diabetes is an important under-appreciated domain of diabetes management. The aim of the study is to assess the prevalence of diabetes distress among T2DM patients in Jhajjar district of Haryana, using widely accepted DDS-17 scale along with testing the scale’s reliability through Cronbach’s α. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This observational study with cross-sectional design was carried out among 503 T2DM patients in district, Jhajjar, Haryana. DDS-17 scale was used for diabetes distress assessment. Data entry and analysis were performed using appropriate software. RESULTS: 37.97% subjects had diabetes distress either in moderate (DDS-17 Score ≥2) or severe (DDS-17 Score ≥3) form. English version of DDS-17 scale showed good internal consistency reliability (α = 0.79). CONCLUSIONS: This study conclusively showed that diabetes distress is very common among T2DM patients as more than one third of the T2DM patients had diabetes distress and diabetes distress scale (DDS-17) is an easy, well-accepted questionnaire with good reliability.