Relationship between perception of handicap and functional disability in elderly patients with type ıı diabetes

Objective: the aim of this study was to determine the relationship between perception of handicap and functional disability in patients older than 60 years old with type ii diabetes. method: fifty–eight female and 42 male elderly people (over the age of 60 years) were participated in our study. demographic characteristics of participants were recorded. participiants’ perception of handicap about diabetes was measured by interference subscale of multidimensional diabetes questionnaire. this scale consists of 9 questions. each patient was scored on a likert scale from 0 (no obstacle for participant) to 6 (often obstacle for participant). participants’ functional disability was measured by health assesment questionnaire. there are 20 questions in this questionnaire and responses are made on a scale from 0 (can make activity easily) to 3 (can not make activity) for each special functional activity. results: mean age of participants was 69.44 ± 6.65 years. the average of perception of obstacle score was 20.47 ± 11.82 and average of functional disability was 0.66± 0.73. in this study a significance relationship between perception of obstacle and functional inadequacy (p<0.01) was found. discussion: according to the results of this study; it was shown that if there was a functional inadequacy in patient because of diabetes, there was a high perception of handicap, too. improvement in functional level may be necessary for decreasing perception of handicap in elderly over 60 years of age with type ii diabetes.