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Association of Social Problem Solving With Glycemic Control in a Sample of Urban African Americans With Type 2 Diabetes

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The Social Problem-Solving Inventory—Revised, Short Form, was administered to 65 urban African Americans with type 2 diabetes to examine association of generic problem-solving styles and orientation with hemoglobin A1C (A1C). Eighty-five percent of participants had total social problem-solving scores in the Average range or higher. In linear regression models adjusted for education, each interquartile increase in impulsive/careless score was associated with a 0.82 increase in A1C (%) (p = 0.01), and each interquartile increase in avoidant score was associated with a 1.62 increase in A1C (%) (p = 0.004). After adjusting for depressive symptoms, the association of impulsive/careless style with A1C was attenuated, while the association of avoidant problem solving with A1C remained significant (p = 0.01). Associations of rational problem-solving style, positive orientation, and negative orientation with A1C and health behaviors were not statistically significant. Ineffective problem-solving styles may prove to be important targets for intervention to improve glycemic control.

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Acknowledgments

Social Problem-Solving Inventory—Revised: Short Form sample items were reproduced with permission. Copyright © 1996, 2002 Multi-Health Systems Inc. All rights reserved. This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01-DK48177 and R01-DK48177-S1) and the Johns Hopkins University Outpatient Department General Clinical Research Center (R0052).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Felicia Hill-Briggs, Marian Batts-Turner, Neil R. Powe, Christopher D. Saudek & Frederick L. Brancati

  2. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Felicia Hill-Briggs

  3. Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Tiffany L. Gary, Hsin-Chieh Yeh, Neil R. Powe & Frederick L. Brancati

  4. Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Neil R. Powe

  5. Division of General Internal Medicine, 2024 E. Monument Street, Suite 2-600, Baltimore, Maryland, 21205, USA

    Felicia Hill-Briggs

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  1. Felicia Hill-Briggs
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Correspondence to Felicia Hill-Briggs.

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Hill-Briggs, F., Gary, T.L., Yeh, HC. et al. Association of Social Problem Solving With Glycemic Control in a Sample of Urban African Americans With Type 2 Diabetes. J Behav Med 29, 69–78 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-005-9037-0

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