Functioning and well-being of patients with type 2 diabetes or angina pectoris, compared with the general population

This study compares the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus or angina pectoris with that of a standard population sample (SPS). The HRQOL was assessed by the Swedish Health-Related Quality of Life Survey (SWED-QUAL), a generic HRQOL questionnaire adapted from the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS), with twelve scales tapping aspects of physical, mental, social and general health. Subjects between 45 and 84 years of age who answered the questionnaire were included, i.e. 266 patients with type 2 diabetes, 758 patients with mild angina pectoris (Canadian Classes I and II) and 908 with severe angina (Canadian Classes III and IV). As controls, we used 1126 subjects from the SPS. Patients with type 2 diabetes, mild angina and severe angina showed an increasing degree of health disturbance, compared with the SPS. Diabetic patients with no heart disease showed only a minor impact on the HRQOL, while the presence of a heart disease showed a considerable impact. In angina patients, the presence of diabetes also to some extent added to the decrease in HRQOL. On comparing the impact of the heart disease and diabetes on the HRQOL, the heart disease showed a stronger effect on most aspects of the HRQOL than diabetes. It is concluded that coronary heart disease is an important predictor of the impact on the HRQOL of type 2 diabetes patients.