Bhutani Jaikrit, Kalra Sanjay, Bhutani Sukriti, Kalra Bharti
Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences Rohtak, Karnal, Haryana, India.
Indian J Endocrinol Metab. 2013 Oct;17(Suppl 1):S286-8. doi: 10.4103/2230-8210.119613.
The cross cultural differences in perception of menopausal symptoms are well known and these differences in perception of hypoglycemic symptoms in Russian-speaking and Caucasian postmenopausal women have been reported.
This study assessed cross - linguistic and cross - cultural differences in symptomatology of self reported hypoglycemia, between Punjabi and Hindi speaking diabetic post menopausal women.
Thirty Punjabi speaking and 20 Hindi speaking diabetic postmenopausal women aged over 50 years, were recruited for this study. Each subject was asked, what happens to you when you have low sugar? in the language of her choice, and spontaneous answers were recorded verbatim.
The data so obtained was analyzed by paper and pen method to obtain an understanding of the frequency of self reporting of various symptoms and then analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science ver.19.0.
Symptoms of hollowness, cold sweats and headache correlated significantly (P < 0.0001, P = 0.0001 and P = 0.03 respectively). One difference was noted in women from rural vs. urban background: Inability to concentrate was more frequent in urban women (4/23) vs rural women (0/27) (P < 0.0001).
To our knowledge, this is the first exploratory work highlighting the differences in self reported hypoglycemia symptomatology, based on linguistic background. In India and other countries with multi ethnic, multi linguistic societies, linguistic competence in hypoglycemia history taking is important.
Incidence of hypoglycemia in the subjects enrolled was not assessed. Many of the subjects in the Punjabi speaking cohort were bilingual. Some symptoms of hypoglycemia may have been missed or over-reported by participants.
Diabetes care professionals should be aware that persons with diabetes from varying linguistic backgrounds may report symptoms of hypoglycemia differently.
更年期症状认知中的跨文化差异是众所周知的，并且已经报道了讲俄语和高加索绝经后女性在低血糖症状认知上的这些差异。
本研究评估了讲旁遮普语和印地语的糖尿病绝经后女性在自我报告的低血糖症状学方面的跨语言和跨文化差异。
招募了30名年龄超过50岁、讲旁遮普语的糖尿病绝经后女性和20名讲印地语的糖尿病绝经后女性参与本研究。每位受试者被问到：“当你血糖低时会发生什么？”，用她选择的语言提问，并逐字记录自发回答。
通过纸笔方法对如此获得的数据进行分析，以了解各种症状自我报告的频率，然后使用社会科学统计软件包第19.0版进行分析。
饥饿感、冷汗和头痛症状之间存在显著相关性（分别为P < 0.0001、P = 0.0001和P = 0.03）。在农村与城市背景的女性中发现了一个差异：注意力不集中在城市女性中更常见（4/23），而农村女性中则没有（0/27）（P < 0.0001）。
据我们所知，这是第一项基于语言背景突出自我报告的低血糖症状学差异的探索性工作。在印度和其他具有多民族、多语言社会的国家，在低血糖病史询问中具备语言能力很重要。
未评估所纳入受试者的低血糖发生率。讲旁遮普语队列中的许多受试者会说两种语言。参与者可能遗漏或过度报告了一些低血糖症状。
糖尿病护理专业人员应意识到，来自不同语言背景的糖尿病患者可能对低血糖症状的报告有所不同。
