Measuring the psychological and behavioural impact of living with diabetes
23rd January 2024
OUI’s Diabetes Health Profiles empower those living with diabetes to have a voice in their healthcare.
Diabetes, a chronic condition affecting millions worldwide, requires a multifaceted approach to management. Beyond medications and blood glucose monitoring, lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, emotional well-being and sleep play crucial roles in diabetes control. Recognising the need for a comprehensive understanding of individual health profiles, the Diabetes Health Profiles (DHP) emerge as valuable assessment tools for healthcare professionals designed to measure the impact of diabetes.
Embracing a holistic approach to diabetes management, the Diabetes Health Profiles uniquely empower patients and healthcare professionals to collaborate and navigate the intricate path towards optimal diabetes management and overall patient well-being. Offering a comprehensive understanding that goes beyond what other diabetes-specific assessment measures, the Diabetes Health Profiles provide nuanced insights, fostering a more personalised and effective clinical approach to diabetes care.
Consisting of two measures, the DHP-1 was developed first in 1996 and encompasses 32 questions that are specifically tailored toward those managing Type 1 diabetes. Meanwhile, the DHP-18, later introduced in 2000, features 18 questions and has been validated for use with individuals managing either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. Both versions can be used by healthcare professionals to capture patient thoughts and feelings toward the following important areas of diabetes management:
- Psychological distress
- Barriers to activity
- Eating behaviour
The DHP was designed in-line with the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) guidelines for developing Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) and has since been translated into 38 different languages and used in a variety of settings, from clinical practice, clinical trials and research studies. The DHP has demonstrated good measurement properties, including reliability coefficient and the ability to discriminate between different treatment groups and patient groups experiencing severe hypoglycaemic episodes. A benefit to using the DHP also lies in the fact that the instrument has been through multiple studies to test acceptability amongst patients; with average item completion rates coming back at over 90%.
Complementary to the standalone DHP, preference-based measures have also recently been developed that allow health economists or study managers to generate utility values from data collected by the DHP, also referred to as Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs).
If you have any questions related to the DHP or would like to find out more about how you can obtain a licence to use the PROM, you can contact the Clinical Outcomes team via healthoutcomes@innovation.ox.ac.uk or visit Diabetes Health Profile.
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