Mental health symptoms and patient-reported diabetes symptom burden: implications for medication regimen changes.

Aims: To examine the relative contribution of glycaemic control (HbA1C) and depressive symptoms on diabetes-related symptom burden (hypoglycaemia and hyperglycaemia) in order to guide medication modification.

Methods: Secondary analysis of medical records data and questionnaires collected from a racially/ethnically diverse sample of adult patients with type 2 diabetes (n = 710) from seven outpatient clinics affiliated with an academic medical centre over a 1-year period as part of the Reducing Racial Disparities in Diabetes: Coached Care (R2D2C2) study.

Results: Results from linear regression analysis revealed that patients with high levels of depressive symptoms had more diabetes-related symptom burden (both hypoglycaemia and hyperglycaemia) than patients with low levels of depressive symptoms (βs = 0.