What drives distress? Rethinking the roles of emotion and diagnosis among people with diabetes in Nairobi, Kenya.

What drives distress? Rethinking the roles of emotion and diagnosis among people with diabetes in Nairobi, Kenya. Anthropol Med. 2020 Sep;27(3):252-267 Authors: Mendenhall E, Musau A, Bosire E, Mutiso V, Ndetei D, Rock M Abstract Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a condition that both results from and produces social and psychological suffering. As 'diabetes' increases among low income patients in poorer nations, new challenges arise that drive, co-occur, and result from the condition. In this article, we describe how social suffering produces diabetes by way of addressing the varied social, psychological, and biological factors that drive diabetes and are reflected in diabetes experiences among patients seeking care at a public hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. We recruited a non-probability sample to participate in a cross-sectional study of 100 patients (aged 35-65 years), where half of the participants sought care from a diabetes clinic and half sought care from the primary healthcare clinic. We obtained informed consent in writing, and collected life history narratives, surveys, anthropometrics, and biomarkers. This paper evaluates survey data using frequencies and regression tables. We found that social factors as opposed to disease factors were major drivers of psychological distress among those with and without diabetes. Psychological distress was associated with female gender and feelings of financial and personal insecurity. We also ...
Source: Anthropology and Medicine - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Tags: Anthropol Med Source Type: research