Fear of hypoglycemia in patients with type 2 diabetes: The role of interoceptive accuracy and prior episodes of hypoglycemia.

Abstract Objective Fear of hypoglycemia (FoH) is a limiting factor for diabetes self-management and can have detrimental effects on quality of life. However, relatively little is known about its underlying mechanisms. In line with findings on patients with anxiety disorders, we hypothesized that interoceptive accuracy (IA) might be positively linked to FoH in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Methods 133 patients with T2DM were screened according to the extreme quartiles of the Hypoglycemia Fear Survey worry subscale (HFS-W). Overall, 66 participants (HFS-W   17) were included in the present study. Participants completed questionnaires on sociodemographic and diabetes-related measures. …