Depression and Distress in Pediatric Type 1 Diabetes: A Latin American Multicenter Study.

Authors

Valeria Hirschler, Claudio D Gonzalez, Amanda Benitez, Andrea Escalante Marassi, Angela Figueroa Sobrero, Ernesto Bogado, Adriana Roussos, Laura Gaete, Angeles Arrigo, Grabois Florencia, Eugenia Andres, Maria Laura Arzamendia, Juan Pablo Rojas Godoy, Etel Codner, Luciana Araujo, Luis F Palacios Porta, Claudia Molinari, Daniel R Witte

Published in

Endocrine connections. Aug 14, 2026. Epub Aug 14, 2026.

Abstract

To determine (1) the prevalence of depressive symptoms and diabetes-related distress and (2) the association between their combined presence and metabolic outcomes in Latin American children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM).
This cross-sectional study included children with T1DM of> 1 year's duration from 10 diabetes centers in Argentina and Chile. Age, sex, socioeconomic status (SES), and HbA1c were evaluated. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; range 0-60; depression ≥16) and diabetes distress using the Problem Areas in Diabetes (PAID; range 0-80; distress ≥40). Spearman correlation, Phi coefficient, and multivariable logistic regression were used for statistical analysis.
Among 244 children (50% female), median age was 13.4 years (IQR 11.3-15.0), and median HbA1c was 8.3% (IQR 7.2-9.5). Depressive symptoms were present in 52% of participants and diabetes-distress in 26.6%. The agreement between CES-D and PAID categorical thresholds was fair (Phi = 0.39). The Both-1 group (n = 55; 22.5%) (high CES-D and PAID ) showed an inverse Spearman correlation with SES (r = -0.32, p < 0.01) and a positive correlation with HbA1c (r = 0.30, p < 0.01). In multivariable logistic regression, higher HbA1c (OR 1.34; 95% CI 1.1-1.6) and lower SES (OR 0.36; 95% CI 0.2-0.6) were independently associated with the Both-1 group (high CES-D and PAID), adjusted for age, sex, and BMI.
In Latin American children with T1DM, the combined presence of depressive symptoms and diabetes-related distress was associated with poorer metabolic control and lower SES.

PMID:
42598990
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 14 Aug 2026.

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