PATIENT ACTIVATION MEASURES IN TYPE2 DM IN TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL – DOES IT DIFFER BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE

Abstract

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes is characterised by relative insulin deficiency caused by pancreatic β-cell dysfunction and insulin resistance in target organs. The Patient Activation Measure is a valid, highly reliable, uni-dimensional, probabilistic Guttman-like scale that reflects a developmental model of activation. The measure has good psychometric properties indicating that it can be used at the individual patient level to tailor intervention and assess changes.

Aim: To investigate whether the level of patient activation differs between men and women with T2DM.

Materials and methods: It is a cross-sectional study involving all the patients with T2DM from a tertiary care hospital. The following data were extracted: age, gender, BMI, smoking status, HbA1c, use of glucose lowering medication, and the presence of complications. In this study the Dutch version of the PAM was used which was validated by NIVEL (Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research). The questionnaire consists of 13 items. The association between gender and patient activation was investigated with multivariate linear regression using the continuous PAM score.

Results: 54.5% of the patients were male and 45.5% were female. Mean age was 61.54 (SD: 12.037) years in men and 57.41 (SD: 12.583) years in women, who were significantly older than women (