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Michael Wright was 16 years old when he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and even though his friends supported him, he always felt different.
"I would do my injections and my tests in private [in another room or even the bathroom] It was also to avoid foreign looks or ask embarrbading questions about how he had contracted the disease sugar in the blood. People sometimes asked, "Was it eating too much fast food?" Wright Remembers
The Effects of Stigma
For some adolescents and young adults, feeling stigmatized leads them to ignore or abandon their diabetes management. This kind of stigma can lead to a deterioration of diabetes care, and a team of researchers (including Wright while he was a student) recently examined the issue.
The Canadian online survey of nearly 400 adolescents and young adults aged 14 to 24 years old with type 1 diabetes found that stigma is ubiquitous. Nearly two-thirds said they felt stigmatized because of their illness. And the feeling of stigma was linked to a two-fold higher risk of mismanagement of blood sugar, according to the study.
The study was published recently in the Journal of Medical Internet Research . The stigma does not make people feel good, and this can be detrimental to the way the disease is managed, "said Dr. Kaberi Dasgupta, lead author of the study. She is Associate Professor of Medicine at McGill University in Montreal
What is Type 1 Diabetes?
With type 1 diabetes, the immune system mistakenly attacks pancreatic insulin-producing cells. Insulin is a hormone that helps sugar from foods in the cells to be used as fuel. A person with type 1 diabetes no longer produces enough insulin and must replace it with injections or an insulin pump.
As Diabetes South Africa has indicated, diabetes is the second leading cause of death in South Africa. According to the pediatric endocrinologist, Dr. David Segal, about 6,000 South African children have type 1 diabetes.
The study
The study's Is also looking at severe hypoglycemia (hypoglycemia) that required the help of another person to treat. Hypoglycemia occurs when someone takes too much insulin, which causes tremors, sweating, increased heart rate and behavioral changes. If blood sugar levels fall too low, risks of fainting and seizures can occur, according to the US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
"Among those who reported stigma, they were three times more likely to have had severe hypoglycemia," noted Dasgupta. They were also more likely to have poor blood sugar management.
But, she noted, it's hard to know which one is the first. She said that an episode of severe hypoglycemia could certainly make someone more self-conscious, but it is also possible that a sense of stigma has pushed somebody to give up in the blood glucose test, which could lead to severe hypoglycaemia.
I know, but I think it's probably a combination, I do not think everything is perceived, "said Dasgupta
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