EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HOPELESSNESS AND DISABILITY IN ELDERLY INDIVIDUALS WITH DIABETES

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate the association between hopelessness and disability in elderly individuals with diabetes. Materials and Method: The study involved 500 elderly patients diagnosed with diabetes who were registered with family health centers. Data were collected via the Socio-demographic Information Questionnaire, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, and the Brief Disability Questionnaire. Analysis methods included calculating numbers, percentages, means, standard deviations, and conducting correlation and regression analyses. The statistical significance level was accepted as p < 0.05. Results: The mean age of the participants was 70.98 +/- 6.63 years. On the Beck Hopelessness Scale, participants scored an average of 9.93 +/- 1.48 total points, while on the Brief Disability Questionnaire, they scored 12.27 +/- 5.43 total points. It was found that 90.4% of the participants had a disability, with 50.8% classified as having a severe disability. There was a statistically significant difference between disability and various factors including gender, cohabitation status, educational attainment, employment status, income level, duration of diabetes, and the presence of other chronic diseases (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The study findings revealed that participants had a moderate level of hopelessness, with only a small proportion having no disability, while approximately half of the participants experienced severe disability. Additionally, a very weak positive relationship was observed between participants' disability levels and their scores on the Beck Hopelessness Scale (p = 0.005). Based on these results, suggestions were formulated to address the implications of the findings in the study.