Health-related Quality of Life among Patients with Type II Diabetes Mellitus

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Background: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that causes considerable morbidity and mortality worldwide, resulting in an impaired quality of life in affected people. Aim: To assess health-related quality of life among patients with type II diabetes mellitus and its associated factors. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was conducted from January to July 2022 at Ribat University Hospital in Khartoum and Abdallah Khalil Diabetic Centre in Omdurman. A total of 400 patients with type II diabetes who visited the referred clinics were enrolled in the study. Data was collected by face-to-face interview using the revised Diabetes Quality of Life instrument to assess the health-related quality of life. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 23.0 and summarized using tables and charts. The association between health-related quality of life and sociodemographic characteristics, clinical factors and lifestyle factors was obtained using chi-square test. Results: The mean score for overall health-related quality of life was 29.3 ± 11.5 while each domain of “satisfaction”, “impact” and “worry” had mean scores of 13.7 ± 4.9, 8.5 ± 4.4 and 7.1 ± 3.7, respectively. Since the scores obtained were only approximately half of the possible range of scores for quality of life, the overall health-related quality of life is considered to be moderate. This study also revealed that 40% of the participants have poor health-related quality of life. The relationship between HbA1c level & health-related quality of life was statistically significant (P value = 0.044) in which high glycosylated hemoglobin levels was associated with poor quality of life. Gender, age, education level, marital status, duration of diabetes and the presence of comorbidities and complications had statistically significant association with health-related quality of life. Conclusion: This study demonstrates a moderate overall health-related quality of life among patients with T2DM. Besides, it also demonstrates a low quality of life among 40% of patients with T2D, suggesting that quality of life should be included in any modality used for treating diabetic patients.