Diabetic children and adolescents who are bullied are significantly less likely to adhere to glucose testing or attend to their diets, reported Eric A. Storch, Ph.D., and his associates at the University of Florida, Gainesville.
Previous studies have shown that bullied children often avoid situations where they are more likely to be bullied.
Similarly, Dr. Storch, who is with the department of psychiatry at the university, and his colleagues suspected that diabetic children might avoid overt self-management behaviors, such as dietary limitations or insulin shots, which would attract the attention of bullies (J. Pediatr. 2006;148:784–7).
Reports of diabetes-related bullying were significantly associated with overall poor diabetes care and increased HbA1c concentrations. Children and their parents completed questionnaires designed to assess diabetes management and experiences with bullying.
Specifically, diabetes-related bullying significantly predicted 9% of the variation in self-management and nearly 6% of the variation in self-reported depression in a review of 167 type 1 diabetic patients aged 8–17 years. The results were based on measures of bullying and depression that included statements such as “Other kids tease me about not being able to eat certain foods.”
Self-reported depression mediated the link between diabetes-related bullying and diabetes self-management, but it did not reduce the significance of bullying to poor self-management in this study, Dr. Storch and his assoicates said.
The results suggest that physicians need to ask about peer relationships when a child with diabetes struggles to maintain treatment adherence.
It remains unclear, however, whether a diabetic child is automatically more susceptible to bullying or whether having diabetes increases the risk of bullying in a child who is vulnerable to bullies for other reasons, the researchers noted.