A Cross-sectional Study to Assess the Distress Among Type II Diabetes Mellitus Patients: A Regional Adaptation of PAID-20 Scale

Diabetic distress remains underreported, with its incidence and prevalence varying across regions and lacking consistent documentation. Furthermore, routine clinical practice rarely incorporates standardized assessment of this form of distress. Therefore, we aimed to translate, validate, and test the reliability of the Problem Areas in Diabetes (PAID)-20 scale into two regional languages, Malayalam and Kannada, and evaluate the diabetes-associated distress and its association with glycaemic control and sociodemographic factors among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Following validation, both the scales were administered to assess distress scores and their association with patients’ sociodemographic and clinical parameters. Further, the validated scales were found to be reliable for their regional use (Cronbach-α > 0.7). A cross-sectional study was conducted among 354 patients with type 2 DM at a tertiary care hospital; males (63.84%) were predominant over females (36.16%), with the overall mean age of 61.1 ± 10.25 years. The prevalence of diabetes-related distress was 28.8%, with a weak positive correlation between glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels and diabetes-related distress, which was statistically significant (r = 0.141, p = .008), indicating that poorer glycemic control is associated with higher distress. Further, family history of diabetes and socioeconomic status were found to have a marginally significant association with distress level among diabetes patients (p = .059 and p = .055). Routine assessment of diabetes distress using these regionally adapted tools may facilitate clinical and psychological diabetes management.