Among the many psychological and psychiatric disturbances in diabetes, stigma due to the disease (‘Diabetes stigma’) is one. It has been studied principally in subjects with type 1 diabetes. We report diabetes stigma in subjects with type 2 diabetes from southern India, in relation to demographic and lifestyle variables. Subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus presenting to a tertiary care diabetes and endocrine center in southern India were recruited (n:333; 196 men, 137 women age range 25-78 years). structured interview form to provide demographic, clinical and life style related information. They completed Diabetes Stigma Assessment Scale-2 (DSAS-2) to assess diabetes stigma. ANOVA and t-test results showed that the tested demographic variables (age, gender, occupation, level of education and income), clinical and life style variables (diabetes duration, no. of stressors and exercise) had significant influence on the experience of diabetes stigma. When these associations were tested using two separate multiple regression models, only age was found to be a significant predictor of stigma in terms of total stigma experience, perception of being treated differently by others, self-stigma and blame & judgment by others. Interestingly, participants’ gender didn’t make any significant difference in this experience of stigma. Similarly, all the three tested clinical and life style variables emerged as significant predictors of various domains of diabetes stigma. Diabetes stigma is closely linked with age and life style factors such as duration of diabetes, number of stressors being experienced and physical exercise among people with Type 2 diabetes.
