Evaluation of health-related quality of life in type 2 diabetic patients with various complications and oral drug treatment

Abstract

Objective To examine the quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes treated with oral drugs and to evaluate the impact of complications on health utility of these patients in China.Methods A survey was conducted in type 2 diabetic patients from 75 hospitals situated in 9 cities.Patients' information was collected including demographic data,status of complications,and quality of life (EQ-5D).Logistic regression and multiple regression analyses were carried out to explore the impact of complications on health-related quality of life in these patients.Results Seven thousand and eighty-two patients completed the investigation.The mean HbA1C was 9.10％.81.45％ of participants experienced diabetic complications,the most frequent complication was hypertension (51.09％).In patients with complications,the EQ-5D scores and VAS scores were significantly lower than those without complications.Results of the Logistic regressions for the five dimensions of the EQ-5D showed that patients with diabetic foot were 4.12 times more likely to experience mobility problems than patients without complication,patients with stroke were 3.49 times more likely to experience self-care problem.Multiple linear regression results showed that diabetic foot had the worst effect on the overall EQ-5D score,followed by stroke and nephropathy.Conclusions Type 2 diabetic patients with oral drug treatment experienced poor quality of life.Complications were associated with decreased quality of life among diabetic patients. Key words: Diabetes mellitus, type 2; Complication; Quality of life; EQ-5D scale