Diabetes-specific eating disorder and social exclusion in adolescents with type 1 diabetes

Background Adolescents with type 1 diabetes are at risk of developing eating disorders and social exclusion, and these disorders are associated with serious diabetes-related medical and social complications.ObjectiveThe present study, which had a descriptive and correlational design, was conducted to determine the relationship between diabetes-specific eating disorders and social exclusion in adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes (T1DM) who were treated at a university hospital in Turkiye between November 2021 and April 2022.MethodThe sampling of the study consisted of 124 adolescents who had T1DM between the ages of 14 and 18 who were followed up in the pediatric endocrinology clinic of a university hospital. The data of the study were collected with the Descriptive Characteristics Form, the Diabetes-Specific Eating Disorder Scale (DEPS-R), and the Adolescent Social Exclusion Scale (OES-A). The study was conducted with the permission of the institution and ethics committee, and written consent was obtained from the adolescents and parents. The descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U-Test, Kruskal-Wallis Analysis of Variance, and Simple Linear Regression Analysis were used in the evaluation of the data.ResultsThe mean scores of the DEPS-R and OES-A scales of the adolescents who had T1DM were 43.29 & PLUSMN; 17.15 and 34.51 & PLUSMN; 8.41, respectively. A relationship was detected between the OES-A mean scores of the adolescents and the DEPS-R mean scores, and the OES-A mean score explained 74.7% of the DEPS-R mean score (R2 = 0.747) (p & LE; 0.001).ConclusionIt was determined in the present study that adolescents with T1DM had high levels of social exclusion and eating disorders. It was also found that as the level of social exclusion of adolescents with T1DM increased, the level of eating disorders increased.