Assessment of health-related quality of life among adult patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Introduction.The aim of the study was to find out the determinants of the quality of life in primary health care patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods. The cross-sectional study included 181 patients, aged 37 to 89 years, with diabetes mellitus type 2, registered with four family medicine practices. The assessment of health status was conducted using medical history, objective examination, laboratory analyses, dilated eye exam, screening for distal symmetric neuropathy and ankle-brachial index measurement. In evaluating the impact of diabetes mellitus on patients’ health status, a generic instrument, the self-administered WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire, was used. Multivariate linear regression models were used to analyze the variables associated with the quality of life. Results. Out of 181 adult patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, 73 (40.3%) had diabetes for less than 5 years. The mean glycated hemoglobin (A1C) was 7.55% and the mean serum levels of fasting glucose, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides were above the recommended values. Most of the patients had comorbidities, chronic diabetes complications and used oral hypoglycemic agents in combination with insulin. The multivariate regression analysis showed that the age, psychological health, nephropathy and environment were associated with the domain of physical health. The determinants of psychological health were age, marital status and environment. Older and single patients had lower scores, whereas those with a better living environment had higher scores in the domain of social relationship. The levels of glycemic control and gender have not been shown to be significant determinants of any of the four domains. Conclusion. The factors associated with the different domains of quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes are multiple, but mainly relate to age, living environment and diabetes complications. The results can be used as a guideline for defining measures that can improve the quality of life of patients with type 2 diabetes