Psychometric properties of the Swedish Diabetes Empowerment Scale.

Objective: This study was conducted to determine the psychometric properties of the Swedish version of the Diabetes Empowerment Scale (Swe-DES-23).

Research Design And Methods: A convenience sample of 195 patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes completed the Swe-DES-23 questionnaire. To establish discriminant validity, Swe-DES subscales were compared with the Semantic Differential in Diabetes scale (SDD) and a general health scale (EVGFP).

Sense of coherence and power among people with blindness caused by diabetes.

The aim of the present study was to analyze whether strong sense of coherence (SOC) or power or the combination of strong SOC and power was related to blind diabetic patients' self-perceived health, burden of diabetes, glycaemic control and self-care among blind people. In some variables we wanted to compare subjects with diabetes-related blindness with people who were blind for other reasons than diabetes. The present descriptive study included 39 blind subjects from three ophthalmic outpatient clinics who agreed to participate; 23 were blind due to diabetes and 16 were blind for other reasons.

Self-perceived health and self-care among diabetic subjects with defective vision: a comparison between subjects with threat of blindness and blind subjects.

The aim of this study was to compare self-perceived health among diabetic patients who experienced threat of blindness with those who had already gone blind. Another aim was to explore different aspects of self-care in relation to self-perceived health among the subjects. Twenty-one diabetic patients under threat of becoming blind and 23 with diabetes-related blindness agreed to participate in the study.

Oral health and health-related quality of life in type 2 diabetic patients and non-diabetic controls.

The aim of the present study was to identify factors in oral health and also diabetes-related and socio-economic components that could be associated with the subject's health-related quality of life (HRQL). One-hundred-and-two randomly sampled type 2 diabetic and 102 age-matched and gender-matched non-diabetic subjects from the same residential area were studied cross-sectionally using the SF-36 questionnaire. Although the HRQL profiles were similar in nature, the control subjects indicated a more favorable health status in their HRQL scores than did type 2 diabetic subjects.

Oral dryness and peripheral neuropathy in subjects with type 2 diabetes.

Two common complaints related to diabetes mellitus are oral dryness (xerostomia) and peripheral neuropathy (PN) and there is some evidence of a relationship between them. Therefore, we formulated a hypothesis that type 2 diabetic subjects with xerostomia in our study also exhibited PN. The study included 102 randomly sampled type 2 diabetic patients from a healthcare district in mid-Sweden.