Effect of Lifestyle Intervention on Medical Treatment Cost and Health-Related Quality of Life in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients

Abstract

Diabetes is a costly, lifestyle disorder which increases the burden of disease and deteriorates the Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) of diabetes patients and this study was conducted to assess the effect of lifestyle intervention on medical treatment cost and HRQOL in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. This quasi-experimental prospective study was conducted in Delhi Diabetes Research Center, New Delhi and included 224 T2DM patients. Patients were divided into LMC and usual care group on the basis of receiving or not receiving lifestyle modification counseling. The follow-up of both groups was done at 6th and 12th months. Collected data were analyzed through IBM, SPSS software v 21 for mean, median (min-max), SD, t-test and Wilcoxon scores (rank sums) test. The results of this study showed a statistically significant reduction in diabetes medication costs, hospitalization and surgery costs in the LMC group as compared to the usual care group. The significant improvement was also observed in HRQOL domains which includes - physical functioning (62.40±6.738 to 83.67 ± 5.4920), physical health (35.30±22.069 to 64.50±13.62), emotional problem (37.90±28.93 to71.46±16.75), energy (54.31±11.858 to 80.75 ± 15.52), emotional well-being (63.06± 9.828 to 85.79±6.36), social functioning (38.848±20.805 to 65.54±8.39) and general health (54.51±11.679 to 82.398± 11.7) at 12th month follow up in LMC group. The ADS score also showed significant improvement in overall HRQOL of LMC group. This study concludes that lifestyle intervention may improve HRQOL and reduce medical treatment cost of T2DM patients.