Some social factors related to control of diabetes mellitus in adult Jamaican patients.

A population of 103 adult diabetic patients was interviewed at the Outpatient Clinic for diabetic patients of the University Hospital of the West Indies to examine the effects of severity of the illness and social variables, such as facilities at home, education attained, employment status, informal medication, and understanding of the illness in relation to its control. Patients were classified as severe if there were clinical evidence of vascular or neurologic complications of diabetes and as mild if there were no complications. Control of diabetes was regarded as good if the patients were free from or had less than 2+ glycosuria and as poor if they had had 2+ or more glycosuria during the six months before the study. We found that the quality of control was mainly determined by the severity of the disease. In the mild diabetic, proper diabetic control was not influenced by any social variable examined. In the severe diabetic the quality of control was associated with social amenities, educational status, employment status, and understanding of the disease.