Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus: Findings from the Diabetes Landeck Cohort

Maintaining and optimizing quality of life (QoL) is a central issue and one of the most important goals in therapy for patients with chronic diseases, such as diabetes mellitus (DM). Despite its importance, there is little data on the QoL of patients with DM in Austria. The objective of this study was to extend an established population-based cohort, the Diabetes-Landeck cohort, by including patient-reported outcomes.

We performed a survey on quality of life (QoL) and treatment satisfaction in patients from the Diabetes-Landeck cohort using the EQ-5D-5L, the problem areas in diabetes survey (PAID), and the diabetes treatment satisfaction questionnaire (DTSQ). Mean sum scores were calculated and compared between patient characteristic subgroups.

In total 58 patients were recruited, with a mean age of 63 years and a mean hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) of 7.1%. The mean sum score of EQ-5D-5L was 92 (SD=10.6), and that of DTSQ and PAID were 32.2 (SD=6.6) and 10.8 (SD=11.6), respectively. Patients with obesity (body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m²) showed a statistically significant decreased mean sum score of EQ-5D-5L and a statistically significant increased mean sum score of DTSQ. Patients with HbA1c ≥7.5% showed a statistically significant decreased mean sum score of DTSQ.

We observed patient-reported outcomes significantly associated with obesity and HbA1c, which could be used for targeted patient monitoring. Limited by small sample size and questions in generalizability, we strongly suggest the rollout of a larger study.