Abstract
Background: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) adversely affects health-related quality of life (QoL). However, little is known about the QoL of diabetic patients in Benin, where the disease is a growing concern. Thus, this study aims to assess the QoL and its associated factors among T2D patients in Cotonou, southern Benin. Methods: A total of 300 T2D patients (age > 18 years) were enrolled, and the diabetes-specific quality of life (DQoL) and Natividad self-care behaviors’ (SCB) instruments were used for data collection. DQoL scores were calculated, and factors associated with DQoL explored using logistic regression. Results: The mean of patients’ DQoL was 38.1 ± 4.1, with 43% having low QoL. In terms of DQoL, 56.3% reported a high diabetes impact, followed by low life satisfaction (53%) and high worry about diabetes (32.7%). In the logistic regression analysis, education, marital status, occupation, family history of diabetes, complications, and social support were associated with DQoL. SCB factors, including healthy eating, problem-solving, coping strategies, and risk reduction, were significant predictors of DQoL. Conclusions: Patients’ empowerment, starting with self-management education, is essential to improve the QoL of T2D patients in Cotonou. However, the programs need to target low education, low socioeconomic status, low social support, and overweight patients.
Highlights
Accepted: 14 February 2022 type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a worldwide epidemic, the rate of increase in its prevalence in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) such as those in Sub-SaharanAfrica (SSA) is alarming [1,2]
This paper reports the quality of life (QoL) and its associated factors among T2D patients in Cotonou, southern Benin, where diabetes prevalence increased from 4.4 to 19% between 2008 and 2015 [4]
Similar studies using diabetes-specific quality of life (DQoL) in Iran and India reported a mean total score of 54.6 and 121.78, respectively [9,36]. Another two studies conducted in Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia used different measurement scales and affirmed our findings [9,37]. These results should be interpreted with caution when comparing the scores as the QoL value sets for each country depending on the choice of instruments, the number of levels, the quality of diabetes care, or the availability of access to support services
Summary
Accepted: 14 February 2022 type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a worldwide epidemic, the rate of increase in its prevalence in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) such as those in Sub-SaharanAfrica (SSA) is alarming [1,2]. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a worldwide epidemic, the rate of increase in its prevalence in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) such as those in Sub-Saharan. By 2045, the number of adults with T2D is expected to increase by 75–80% in LMICs, double the projected global increase of 48%, and the most significant increase in SSA (162.5%) [3]. Benin (an SSA country) is no exception as the diabetes prevalence more than doubled between 2008 (4.6%) and 2015 (12.4%), reaching. The burden of T2D in Benin is more likely to increase with the nutritional transition and accelerating urbanization [7]. T2D imposes a tremendous burden on affected individuals, their families, and healthcare systems in the country, suggesting an urgent need to identify possible interventions to provide optimum healthcare to persons living with diabetes
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