The relationship between perceived stress and blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes

Diabetes is a chronic disease that in addition to physical complications, some psychological problems, especially stress is prevalent among people with diabetes. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between perceived stress and blood glucose in patients with type 2 diabetes in the city of Urmia.
This cross-sectional study (descriptive - analytical) conducted with 330 patients with type 2 diabetes from in rural health centers of city urmia by random cluster sampling in 2016 year. Using Cohen perceived Stress questionnaire was used to collect information. Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and fasting blood sugar (FBS) were used to measure blood sugar levels in diabetic patients. Data using descriptive statistics and independent t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient were analyzed in SPSS v.21 software.
The results of this study showed that the majority of the patients’ perceived stress (70.9%) were in low level and the perceived stress mean of them were in the low level (24.22±7.6).There was statistically significant relationship between perceived stress and blood sugar based on Pearson correlation test (p = 0.001, r =0.28).
According to the results of this present study, it is suggested to develop programs and approaches to reduce the perceived stress of patients with diabetes in order to decrease their blood sugar.