Abstract 123: Prevalence of diabetes distress and its relationship with glycemic control using mobileapplication administered diabetes distress scale - Insights from Fitterfly Diabetes Digital Therapeutics Program

Background: Higher diabetes distress is often associated with poor glycemic control andcompromised diabetes self-care. This study highlights the significance of evaluating diabetesdistress through a digital therapeutics platform and the association of diabetes distress with HbA1c. Methods: De-identified data of 1600 participants with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) enrolledin Fitterfly Diabetes Digital Therapeutics Program across India (557 females and 1043 males withmean age = 47.65 years and SD = 11.50) were analyzed. The change in diabetes distress wasanalyzed using 17-item Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS) with participants reporting high distress (Score 33.0), moderate distress (Score 2.0-2.9), and little or no distress (Score < 2.0). HbA1c values were collected at the beginning of the program. Virtual consultations with psychologistswere provided to each participant as part of the Fitterfly Diabetes program along with severaldigital interventions and expert-led care. Spearman correlation was used on SPSS for statisticalanalysis and P < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Diabetes distress was reported to be high among 21% (355/1600), moderate among 25% (398/1600) and low among 54% (867/1600) of participants. Analysis of DDS subscalesshowed that high-moderate level of emotional distress, regimen distress, physician distress, interpersonal distress was present in 60.37% (966/1600), 58.68% (939/1600), 32.56% (521/1600), and 30.43% (487/1600) respectively. At the beginning of the program, HbA1c atbaseline was found to be significantly correlated with overall distress (r = 0.18, P = 0.001), emotional burden (r = 0.17, P = 0.001), physician distress (r = 0.108, P = 0.001), regimen distress (r = 0.179, P = 0.001) and interpersonal distress (r = 0.091, P = 0.001). Conclusion: The study highlighted the wide prevalence of high-moderate levels of diabetes distress amongpeople with T2DM. Pre-program HbA1c level showed significant correlation with overall distressand subscale distress scores. This showed that diabetes distress level was significantlyassociated with the glycemic control among participants. Fitterfly Diabetes digital therapeuticsprogram can help in providing easy access to multidisciplinary teams including trained clinicalpsychologists for reducing diabetes distress, thereby assisting the physicians to provide a holisticdiabetes care with better outcomes.