DIABETES

Diabetes

Diabetes

Case Study

The paper will consider a case study of a 41 year old African American male married 3 children. A C-I test is non compliant with the diabetic regimen he is on glucophage 300mg. The following discussion will attempt to highlight the etiology of the disease, the type of diabetes it is and the development of the disease on its onset in the patient. It is being considered that this person was diagnosed in 2005. In this regard, the paper will also highlight if the disease is in the early stages or late. In addition, the discussion will assert if there are factors that might affect the development of the disease. Clinical manifestations, implications on tissue, organs and organ systems, prognosis for the patient and therapies being used or being considered will also be highlighted.

Discussion & Analyses

It is clear that the patient has type-2 diabetes. Type-2 diabetes (DM2) is a chronic illness characterized by a dysregulation of glucose metabolism secondary to an imbalance between insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion. An estimated 11 million people in the United States were diagnosed with diabetes in the year 2000, and approximately 90% of those individuals were diagnosed with DM2. The number of individuals diagnosed with DM2 has been rising at an alarming rate over the past several decades. It has been estimated that this figure will increase by 165% to 29 million by the year 2050, reflecting a 7.2% prevalence rate. Such an increase is hypothesized to be the result of changes in demographic composition of the population, population growth, and increasing prevalence rates.

Discussion and Analysis

Personal and public health consequences associated with DM2 are profound. For example, individuals with diabetes experience a greater number of health complications and are at higher risk for depression than are their medically well counterparts. On a more global scale, the economic impact of diabetes is staggering; in 1997, the direct and indirect costs associated with diabetes in the United States were an estimated $98 billion (Porte, Sherwin & Baron, 2003). Thus, the increasing prevalence of diabetes in the United States represents a critical public health problem with respect to health care use and resources.

Fortunately, DM2 is medically manageable, and many of the serious medical complications that are associated with the illness are preventable through adequate control of blood glucose levels. Therefore, the primary treatment goal for individuals with DM2 is to maintain blood glucose levels within a normal range (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2005). This requires individuals with diabetes to consistently maintain a complicated, lifelong treatment regimen with few immediate tangible rewards for their efforts. For many, maintaining this complex treatment regimen is difficult, and assistance with disease management is often warranted. As such, researchers and the medical community have recognized the critical role of behavioral sciences in optimizing regimen adherence and health outcomes among patients with DM2.

The purpose of this chapter is to review the psychosocial aspects and behavioral management of DM2. First, information regarding the nature of the illness, including etiology and complications, is ...