Screening for mental illness using GMHAT App of patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus at a teaching institute hospital in India – A cross sectional study

People with diabetes will have some coexisting mental illness most of the time and its evaluation and management are essential for the well-being of the person. With this background, the Global Mental Health Assessment Tool (GMHAT) app was used to screen for mental illness among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients attending a tertiary care hospital in Mysore, India. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 patients who were on treatment for type 2 diabetes for at least 6 months from the Out-Patient Department of KR Hospital, Mysore. Interviews were conducted using a structured GMHAT. Data were entered in MS Excel and analysed using SPSS version 21.0. Chi-square, Independent T-test/Mann–Whitney tests were used to investigate associations between the variables. RESULTS: The mean age of the study participants was 48.8 ± 11.6 years. Among the 100 diabetic patients, 39% (n = 39) had mental illness and among the 39 subjects, 21% had depression, 14% had anxiety disorder and 4% suffered from organic disorder. Apart from diabetes, 29, 17, 13, 27, 23 and 20% had hypertension, chronic kidney disease, liver disease, retinopathy, neuropathy and nephropathy, respectively, as comorbid conditions. CONCLUSION: There is a higher prevalence of mental illness in patients with diabetes mellitus. The prevalence rate increases with an increase in the chronicity of diabetes. The use of the GMHAT app could help in rapid assessment and accurate diagnoses.