Diabetes Mellitus and quality of life: lower socio-economic status patients in Indian tertiary healthcare – a cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: Diabetes mellitus has emerged as one of the most severe diseases in regards to impact on lifestyle. It behaves as a syndrome rather than a single illness owing to its long term complications. Improving the quality of life (QoL) is the main goal to be achieved, thereby making it an essential factor to prognosticate the long term health consequences. Decreased QoL has been observed in patients with long standing diabetes mellitus and worsens when comorbidities add up to it. Routine activities in patients with diabetes is associated with massive physical and psychosocial implications that can lead to lack of self-care, thereby affecting glycaemic control, leading to early development of complications, and finally affecting quality of life. The goal of this study is to understand the relation between the domains of QoL among patients with diabetes mellitus belonging to lower socio-economic status of coastal India. Methods: A cross sectional study focused on individuals seeking services of our tertiary health facility. The study analyzed 100 samples over various domains of QoL. The BG Prasad scale for socio-economic status and the MDQoL-17 questionnaire was used. SPSS version 25.0 was utilized for data analysis. Descriptive statistics namely standard deviation, mean and proportions were used for expressing the outcomes. Results: Data from 100 participants was evaluated of which 63% were males. The mean ages were between 57.2±1.2 years with 31% belonged to ages between 51-60 years. Socio-economic category 4 was highest (52%). Majority of the participants had diabetes since 1-5 years (44%) and >6.5 HbA1c was seen among 95%. A p-value of <0.001 was observed with physical functioning, physical health, emotional wellbeing, emotional health, social functioning and general health that was suggestive of statistical significance. Conclusions: The study was able to correlate various determinants of overall QoL affected, necessitating a targeted approach.