Evaluación psicológica de pacientes con diabetes mellitus Psychological assessment of patients with diabetes mellitus

The psychological aspects are increasingly more relevant in chronic diseases as diabetes. Then, it is necessary to have instruments of psychological assessment to optimize the adherence to the treatment as well as the managing of the disease and its repercussion in the Quality of Life (QOL) of people with diabetes. Improvement of diabetes care has led to assessment of the quality of life related to health, focusing on diabetes impact over different aspects of the quality of life. The psychological assessment analyses the variables related to management of the disease and its associated stressors that may have influence on outcome and prognosis of diabetes. The aim of this paper is to compile the psychological instruments used in the assessment of the diabetes by means of bibliometric investigation. The most used instruments were selected and its domains as control perception, coping responses, health-related beliefs, perceived stress, satisfaction, etc, and their therapeutic implications. In conclusion, although most of the used instruments focus on the assessment of the QOL in general and are not specific for diabetes, as the importance of integral attention in diabetes care has been confirmed, there is an increased trend to developed more specific instruments. Despite of this, there is still a need of new tests in the assessment of psychological variables related directly with the adjustment to the disease, as well as validated instruments for the Spanish population.