Emotional intelligence and glycemic management among type I diabetes patients.

Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong physical and emotional challenge. The concept of emotional intelligence may offer better understanding of personal resources facilitating management of such challenges. We therefore hypothesized that emotional intelligence will negatively associate with two measures of diabetic management: HA1c and blood sugar levels. A total of 78 young adults with type 1 diabetes mellitus reported their last HA1c test result and their blood sugar level, as well as demographics and took the audio-visual test of emotional intelligence. The results showed a negative association between emotional intelligence and HA1c and marginal results in the same direction with blood sugar levels even when controlling for demographics.