Study of the Quality of Life of Diabetic Patients Treated at the HMA

Abstract

Introduction: Maintaining or improving quality of life is a major issue in health care, particularly in the context of chronic diseases such as diabetes. The SF-12 is a generic quality of life questionnaire applicable to patients with diabetes. The aim of this study is to assess the quality of life of diabetic patients using a generic SF-12 questionnaire and to detect factors related to this concept. Materials and methods: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional and analytical observational study that involved 130 diabetic patients followed up in the Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolic Diseases Department at the Avicenne Military Hospital in Marrakech. Results: The average age of our population was 50.5 years, with extremes ranging from 7 to 80 years. Females were predominant (52%). The average age of diabetes was 9.55 years (extremes ranging from 15 days to 35 years). The majority of cases (63%) had a history of ketoacidosis and (43%) had a history of hypoglycemia. The results showed that diabetes negatively affects the quality of life of diabetic patients and that the factors associated with their quality of life are multiple : factors related to socio-demographic characteristics (age and sex), socio-economic characteristics (profession, socio-economic level), co-morbidities (hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity, sedentary lifestyle), and factors related to the disease itself and its acute (hypoglycemia, ketoacidosis) and chronic complications (occlusive arterial disease of the lower limbs (PAOD), myocardial infarction (MI)). Discussion: In order to improve the quality of life of diabetic patients, it is necessary to improve their level of education, to ensure a global management of the diabetic person, of the complications related to diabetes and to implement education strategies and programs as well as community interventions.