Patient Self-reported quality of life assessment in Type 2 diabetes mellitus: A pilot study

Quality of life (QoL) is an important outcome measure to assess the diabetic care and is increasingly replacing the traditional indicators of health.

The aim is to evaluate the QoL in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) using a third generation individualized QoL instrument like an audit of diabetes-dependent QoL (ADDQoL) questionnaire and to determine the predictors.

Patients who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were recruited from a tertiary care hospital by convenience sampling. Sociodemographic and other relevant details were collected from the study patients, and ADDQoL questionnaire were administered to them.

A total of 200 patients were included in the study among which 66% of patients had uncontrolled type 2 DM as suggested by their glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) values. The mean QoL score was 0.07 (0.91) and diabetes-dependent QoL was -1.33 (0.58). Approximately 38% were associated with poor health-related QoL with a mean average weighted impact score of -0.51 (0.51). Most frequently affected life domain was the freedom to eat. A positive correlation was observed between QoL and gender, age, domicile, education status, occupation, family structure, duration of type 2 DM, HbA1c, insulin treatment, and the presence of comorbidities.

The study highlights the impact of type 2 DM on QoL. Improving QoL of type 2 diabetic patients is important and knowledge of these preventable risk factors help to implement strategies to better management of type 2 DM and ultimately improve therapeutic outcome.