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Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is an epidemic across the U.S. with a 11.6% prevalence for adults nationally, compared to 13.6 -23.6% spanning urban and rural areas in Kentucky. Additionally, older adults are disproportionately affected, where 1 in 4 have T2D. Kentucky also has high rates of depression, which literature has shown a bi-directional relationship with T2D. Therefore, this study sought to evaluate the relationship between social support, depressive symptoms, and T2D outcomes among older adults living in Kentucky. u/u Social support and depression were assessed using the MOS Social Support Survey and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Respondents were also asked to name up to 3 individuals in their support network. Mean raw MOS scores were enumerated and subscale means were converted to percentages. Spearman correlation was used to assess associations. There were 55 participants with a mean A1C of 7.02%. Of those, 49.09% reported three social support members, and only 7.27% reported zero social support. MOS revealed generally increasing scores highlighting a robust network size has direct impact on diabetes management. Social network size was negatively correlated with GDS scores (r= -0.13, p=0.38) and positively correlated with all MOS subscales. The overall MOS score was negatively correlated with A1c (r= -0.19, p=0.2) as was network size (r= -0.09, p=0.54). GDS scores showed a weak negative correlation with A1c (r= -0.10 p=0.52). Social support was associated with fewer depressive symptoms and improved glycemic control. Future longitudinal studies with larger and more diverse samples couldu /ufurther clarify these relationships. Disclosure B.L. Smalls: None. Z.M. Taylor: None. N. Gonzabato: None. J. Schaefer: None. Funding National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestion and Kidney Disease (5K01DK116923-05)
SMALLS et al. (Fri,) studied this question.