Abstract / Summary
Abstract Background Hospitalized patients with coexisting hypertension and diabetes face substantial psychosocial and self-management demands, yet person-centered heterogeneity in perceived social support and illness-related coping remains poorly characterized. We aimed to identify latent support-coping profiles, compare depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and sleep quality across profiles, and examine demographic and clinical correlates of profile membership. Methods This multicenter cross-sectional study enrolled 514 patients from 24 clinical departments across four hospitals in Hubei Province, China. Latent profile analysis used three Medical Coping Modes Questionnaire dimensions and three source-specific Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support subscales as indicators. Between-profile differences in Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores were assessed using the Bolck-Croon-Hagenaars method with 1,000 nonparametric bootstrap resamples. Demographic and clinical correlates were examined using multinomial logistic regression with multiple pseudo-class draws and Holm correction. Results Five profiles were retained: very low support across sources (3.7%), low support across sources (42.8%), family-dominant support (8.4%), moderate-to-high support across sources (30.0%), and high support across sources (15.2%). Entropy was 0.940 and the mean maximum posterior membership probability was 0.963. Profiles differed primarily in the level and sources of perceived social support, whereas differences in coping dimensions were modest. Depressive and anxiety symptoms did not differ significantly across profiles. Sleep quality differed overall, but the pattern was nonmonotonic: the low-support profile had poorer sleep than the high-support profile, whereas the very-low-support profile had better sleep than the low-support and moderate-to-high-support profiles. Because the very-low-support profile included only 19 patients, these estimates warrant caution. After Holm adjustment, none of the measured demographic or clinical characteristics was associated with profile membership. Conclusions Psychosocial heterogeneity among hospitalized patients with coexisting hypertension and diabetes was characterized mainly by the level and sources of perceived social support. Sleep quality differed across profiles without a monotonic gradient, whereas depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and measured demographic and clinical characteristics showed no consistent profile-specific differences. Source-specific social support and sleep quality should be assessed directly rather than inferred from routine characteristics.