Latinos More Likely to Have Both Diabetes and Depression or Anxiety

According to a new study presented at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, Latinos as a group are more likely to have both diabetes and a mood disorder like depression or anxiety.

While it’s long-since been recognized that Latinos have higher rates of diabetes than any other ethnic group, news that they are also more prone to an accompanying mental disorder is somewhat unexpected.

In order to come to their conclusions, researchers analyzed the medical records of 129 adults who had been diagnosed with diabetes at the rural health clinic in Imperial County, CA. The purpose, of course, was to determine the rates of mood disorders in Latinos struggling with diabetes, and attempting to determine which illness arrived on scene first.

As per the results, 54 percent of men developed diabetes first and 24 percent developed the depression first. For the women, 59 percent developed diabetes first and 29 percent developed depression first.

Though there hasn’t been an official link established between having diabetes and being at a higher risk of depression, the findings are interesting to say the least.

The leaders of the study from UC, San Diego noted this on the matter:

"Poor motivation, poor eating habits, and lack of impulse control in patients with mood and anxiety symptoms could be considered as contributing factors for the development of metabolic syndrome and diabetes."

More studies have to be done on the topic before any final conclusions can be drawn from these results.