Quality of Life Assessment in Type 2 Diabetes Patients With Cardiovascular and/or Diabetic Complications

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that is causing enormous economic and social costs. It is characterized by many microvascular and macrovascular complications, such as heart attack, stroke, retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, etc. Such complications can cause severe limitations and decrease the quality of life. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of type 2 diabetes mellitus on the quality of life using the EQ-5D-5L questionnaire, taking into account cardiovascular complications (heart attack, hospitalization due to angina pectoris, stroke, hospitalization due to heart insufficiency, transient ischemic attack, coronary revascularisation), complications of diabetes (microalbuminuria, renal failure, retinopathy, and neuropathy), and demographic characteristics (age, gender, body mass index, height, and weight). Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 484 participants with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Quality of life was estimated by the EuroQol instrument EQ-5D-5L and visual analogue scale (VAS). The following complications related to type 2 diabetes were taken into account: heart attack, hospitalization due to angina pectoris, stroke, hospitalization due to heart insufficiency, transient ischemic attack, coronary revascularization, microalbuminuria, renal insufficiency, retinopathy, and neuropathy. Results: The mean value of the EQ index was 0.895, with the value of -0.59 as the lowest, and 1.0 as the highest quality of life of the study patients. Multivariate linear regression model showed that heart attack, hospitalization due to unstable angina pectoris, retinopathy, and neuropathy significantly decreased the quality of life of the study participants (p<0.05). Spearman's correlation showed that there was a significant correlation between age, height, duration of type 2 diabetes, body mass index, and the EQ index (p<0.001). Conclusion: The results suggest that type 2 diabetes complications, such as heart attack, neuropathy, retinopathy, and hospitalization due to unstable angina pectoris significantly decrease the quality of life of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients (T2DM).