Quality of life in subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus with diabetic retinopathy: A case-control study

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) as a common complication of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) affecting negatively quality of life (QoL). Assessing of QoL in patients with DR is a prerequisite for the evaluation of their needs and for understanding the perception of the patients themselves about their health status and how the disease affects their lives. Additionally, QoL indicators detect individual psychosocial problems that may impact therapeutic response.

A total of 70 subjects with T2DM and DR as well as 70 T2DM individuals without DR were included. For the evaluation of QoL we used (a) WHO QoL - BREF for the estimation of QoL, (b) Life Satisfaction Scale for the estimation of satisfaction from life, and (c) the special recording document for demographic, socioeconomic, and clinical data. At the same time, blood was collected for the measurement of glucose control and renal function. DR was diagnosed by dilated fundoscopy.

Patients with DR had significantly worse scores in all scales of QoL and Life Satisfaction in comparison with those without DR. We found significant impact of the severity of DR in many domains of the QoL and Life Satisfaction. Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that DR was associated with worse QoL and Life Satisfaction scores as well as lower income, while no significant associations were found with education level, family, insurance and employment status as well as type of residence.

DR affects QoL and Life Satisfaction and is associated with lower income.