Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important aspect of diabetes mellitus care. The objective of the study was to determine the HRQOL of diabetes mellitus (DM) patients in Botswana as little known in Africa. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study of 380 randomly selected DM patients in a tertiary clinic in Gaborone, Botswana was conducted to obtain Data on HRQOL and structured questionnaire was used to collect information on sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Multivariate logistic regression to determine sociodemographic and clinical characteristics associated. Results: Majority of patients were female with no formal education or primary level of education. Mean HbA1c was 7.97% (SD: 2.02) and most patients had poor glycemic control. The majority had both worse physical composite score (PCS-12) and mental composite score (MCS-12), with worse proportions of the two. Female gender, older age ≥ 65 years, and the presence of three or more documented diabetic complications were associated with significant worse PCS-12. Presence of two diabetic complications, three or more diabetic complications, and musculoskeletal disease were associated with significant MCS-12. Conclusions: Diabetic patients in Botswana have relatively poor HRQOL. The fact that most patients present late with complications calls for policy attention to diagnose diabetes mellitus early and prevent associated complications, ultimately improving health-related quality of life among diabetes mellitus patients

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Background and aims: Glycemic control among patients with diabetes mellitus is associated with a marked reduction of both macrovascular and microvascular complications; however, glycemic control remains an elusive goal worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine factors associated with glycemic control among patients attending a tertiary clinic in Botswana as limited information to date. Methods: Cross-sectional study in a tertiary clinic in Gaborone, Botswana. Patients were recruited between 21 st July 2015 and 21 st September 2015. The majority of the randomly recruited patients (368/380-96.8%) had documentation of glycemic control (HbA1c) within three months of study recruitment and were subsequently included in the analysis. Glycemic control was categorized as desirable, suboptimal and poor if HbA1c was < 7%, 7-9% and > 9% respectively. Data was analyzed using SPSS for descriptive statistics including both bivariate and multinomial logistic regression. Ap-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The analyzed study population consisted of 258/368 (70.1%) females with a mean age (SD) of 56.7± 13.6 years. Means (SDs) for diabetes duration and glycated haemoglobin were 7.2± 7.1 years and 7.97± 2.02% respectively. Of the 368 patients, 136 (36.95%) and 132/368 (35.86%) had desirableand suboptimal glycemic control respectively. Older age, attending the clinic for more or equal to 3 years and not being on insulin were associated with both desirable and suboptimal glycemic control whereas duration of diabetes between 5-10 years was associated with poor glycemic control. Conclusions: The majority of patients had poor glycemic control. Older age and not being on insulin were associated with better glycemic control. The fact that patients on insulin had poor glycemic control calls for more research to determine timing of insulin initiations and dosing schedule factors as these will help toimprove overall glycaemic control in Botswana and elsewhere.

Background: Depression is one of the commonest co-existing medical conditions among patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). A bidirectional relationship between depression and DM exists, complicating glycaemic control leading to an increase in diabetic complications. There is a dearth of information regarding the prevalence of depression and associated factors among patients with DM in Botswana.Aim: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of depression and associated factors among patients with DM. The study also assessed the association between depression and glycaemic control.Setting: A tertiary diabetic referral clinic in Gaborone, Botswana.Method: A sample of 260 randomly selected patients with DM was recruited in this cross-sectional study. Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients were collected using a case report form. Depression was evaluated using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9 scale. Multivariate regression analysis was used to determine factors significantly associated with depression.Results: The mean age (standard deviation [s.d.]) of study participants was 58.4 (11.8) years, and the majority, 160/260 (61.5%), were females. The prevalence of depression was 30.4% and significantly associated with female sex (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 5.529, p-value = 0.004), three or more diabetes-related hospitalisations (AOR = 3.886, p-value = 0.049) and inversely associated with systolic blood pressure (SBP) ≥ 140 mmHg (AOR = 0.11, p-value = 0.001).Conclusion: Depression is a common problem among patients with DM in our setting. Routine screening of depression in diabetic patients to enable early detection and treatment is recommended.