Evaluating the Influence of Mood and Stress on GlycemicVariability in People with T1DM Using Glucose MonitoringSensors and Pools

Abstract

Objective: Assess in a sample of people with type 1 diabetes mellitus whether mood andstress influence blood glucose levels and variability.Material and Methods: Continuous glucosemonitoring was performed on 10 patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus, where interstitial glucosevalues were recorded every 15 min. A daily survey was conducted through Google Forms, collectinginformation on mood and stress. The day was divided into six slots of 4-h each, asking the patientto assess each slot in relation to mood (sad, normal or happy) and stress (calm, normal or nervous).Different measures of glycemic control (arithmetic mean and percentage of time below/above thetarget range) and variability (standard deviation, percentage coefficient of variation, mean amplitudeof glycemic excursions and mean of daily differences) were calculated to relate the mood and stressperceived by patients with blood glucose levels and glycemic variability. A hypothesis test wascarried out to quantitatively compare the data groups of the different measures using the Student’st-test.Results: Statistically significant differences (p-value < 0.05) were found between differentlevels of stress. In general, average glucose and variability decrease when the patient is calm. Thereare statistically significant differences (p-value < 0.05) between different levels of mood. Variabilityincreases when the mood changes from sad to happy. However, the patient’s average glucosedecreases as the mood improves.Conclusions: Variations in mood and stress significantly influenceblood glucose levels, and glycemic variability in the patients analyzed with type 1 diabetes mellitus.Therefore, they are factors to consider for improving glycemic control. The mean of daily differencesdoes not seem to be a good indicator for variability.