The impact of psychosocial determinants of HbA1c level: Implications for social work care management.

Abstract

Diabetes impacts approximately 37.3 million Americans. The majority of HbA1c studies focused on independent variables while there are possibilities of some variables serving as an antecedent to other variables. Furthermore, most of the research has been skewed toward either objective or subjective data, thus overlooking the possible importance of the use of both data sources in tandem. As such, the purpose of this study is to investigate factors impacting glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels both directly and indirectly with the use of both objective and subjective sources of information. The data are obtained from 2017 to 2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). IBM SPSS Amos 29 was used for the purpose of structural equation modeling to investigate paths related to HbA1c levels. The finding shows that diets impact HbA1c levels directly and diet and exercise impact HbA1c indirectly through BMI. Diets alone can directly reduce HbA1c levels, but exercise alone cannot reduce HbA1c levels. Unexpectedly, socioeconomic construct does not have a direct impact on diet or exercise. However, as expected, the depression construct has a significant effect on both exercise and diet.