Health-related quality of life, disease severity, and anticipated trajectory of diabetes.

Purpose: Adults hospitalized with diabetes are likely to have multiple comorbid conditions contributing to suboptimal health-related quality of life. The purpose of this study was to survey urban, very low-income, hospitalized adults with diabetes about disease severity, anticipated disease trajectory, and self-rated health-related quality of life.

Methods: Data were collected using the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), the comparative risk perception questionnaire, and glycosylated hemoglobin.

Afrocentric cultural values and beliefs: movement beyond the race and ethnicity proxy to understand views of diabetes.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to estimate the benefit of using a cultural characteristics scale to help diabetes educators understand how African Americans cope with diabetes. Illness representations are influenced by culture. Race and ethnicity as a proxy for culture provides an incomplete understanding of the mechanism by which cultural values influence representations of diabetes.

Self-regulation theory and the multigenerational legacy of diabetes.

The purpose of this study was to lend further support to the practice-based theory multigenerational legacies of diabetes (MGLDM). The hypothesis that perceptions of diabetes differ depending upon self-reported family history of diabetes was tested. Surveys assessing illness representation were administered by mail to adults with type 2 diabetes who attended diabetes education programs in a Northern Metropolitan East Coast location.