Behavioral, psychological, and clinical outcomes of Arabic-speaking people with type 2 diabetes during COVID-19 pandemic

AIMS: Assess self-care activities, health behaviors, self-efficacy, diabetes distress, challenges, and changes in diabetes treatment and clinical parameters among Arabic-speaking people with T2DM during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary hospital in the United Arab Emirates. The study instrument collected self-reported data using validated tools about health behaviors, self-efficacy, and diabetes distress, and challenges in accessing and using healthcare services during the pandemic and documented clinical data and treatment before and during the pandemic from medical records. RESULTS: 206 patients participated with a mean age of 58.7 years and 15.7 years since diabetes diagnosis. Non-adherence to healthful eating and exercise was reported by 38.3% and 73.7%, respectively. Exercise was the self-care activity that decreased the most (36.8%). Most participants had low diabetes distress (85.9%). There were no significant differences in clinical parameters before and during the pandemic, and diabetes treatment was unchanged for 72.8% of participants. Having two or more challenges with accessing and using diabetes healthcare services was significantly associated with decreased adherence to healthy eating (p = 0.025) and exercise (p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Arabic-speaking people with T2DM appeared to maintain relatively similar self-care levels, except exercise, with no deterioration in clinical parameters compared to pre-pandemic.