Dg1: The Relationship of Diabetes Symptoms and Health-Related Quality of Life

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To determine the relationship between diabetes symptom burden and patients' perceptions of health‐related quality of life (HRQL). METHODS: A questionnaire was sent to 3,716 adults with diabetes enrolled in a managed care organization in West Virginia and southeastern Ohio. Diabetes symptom burden was measured using a 17‐item scale (Diabetes TyPE, Form 2.1). The Health Status Questionaire (HSQ‐12), Version 3.0 was utilized to measure patients' perception of their HRQL. Analyses focused on six domains from the HSQ‐12: General Health Perception (GHP), Physical Functioning (PF), Bodily Pain (BP), Energy/Fatigue (EF), Social Functioning (SF), and Mental Health (MH). Linear regression was used to examine the impact of diabetes symptoms on each of the HRQL domains. RESULTS: Usable responses were obtained from 1,027 persons with diabetes (27.6% response rate). The summated scale of diabetes symptom burden had acceptable internal consistency (alpha = 0.90). Analyses revealed a significant inverse relationship between diabetes symptom burden and each of the six domains from the HSQ‐12, when controlling for gender, age, and education. Overall symptom burden was found to be most highly associated with Social Functioning (r = −.57), while somewhat less strongly associated with the other five domains: GHP (r = −.52); PF (r = −.49); BP (r = −.51); EF (r = −.54); MH (r = −.50). As overall symptom burden increases, the patients' perception of health across all six HRQL domains decreases. CONCLUSIONS: Diabetes symptom burden is inversely related to health‐related quality of life. Thus, interventions targeted towards the alleviation of diabetes symptoms should also lead to improvements in patients' perceptions of their health and well‐being.

Health-related quality of life in type 2 diabetic patients

“…Hospital admission was usually due to hyperglycemia and increased symptoms of diabetes. Increased symptoms of diabetes are associated with a decreased HRQOL as reported by Pfalzgraf et al 23 The findings of this study were supported by Goddijn et al 28 who reported that disappearance of hyperglycemia after treatment and glycemic control were associated with improvement in HRQOL, particularly in physical functioning, social functioning, vitality and health change with the SF-36 scale. The Goddijn et al 28 study was a prospective cohort study with 94 patients.…”

“…Emergency visits and hospital admissions were usually due to hyperglycemia and increased symptoms of diabetes. Increased symptoms of diabetes were found to be associated with decreased HRQOL as reported by Pfalzgraf et al 23 This was also reported by Hemingway et al 24 who found that women scored lower than men in every age group by the SF-36 in non-diabetic patients. In our study, males had higher scores than females, which was also reported by Lloyd et al, who reported that men consistently produced higher mean scores on the SF-36 than women, in 1233 type 2 diabetic patients who were not using insulin.…”

Health-related quality of life in type 2 diabetic patients

“…Emergency visits and hospim m tal admissions were usually due to hyperglycemia and increased symptoms of diabetes. Increased symptoms of diabetes were found to be associated with decreased HRQOL as reported by Pfalzgraf et al 23 This was also reported by Hemingway et al 24 who found that women scored lower than men in every age group by the SFm36 in nonmdiabetic patients. In our study, males had higher scores than females, which was also reported by Lloyd et al, who reported that men consistently produced higher mean scores on the SFm36 than women, in 1233 type 2 diabetic patients who were not using insulin.…”

Patient-reported outcomes among patients using exenatide twice daily or insulin in clinical practice in six European countries: the CHOICE prospective observational study

“…The increasing global prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is accompanied by increased clinical and economic burden [ 1 ]. Achieving good metabolic control, including tight control of blood glucose, contributes to reducing the clinical, psychological, and economic burden of T2DM, and this requires that healthcare professionals and patients work together to achieve optimal treatment of this chronic disease [ 2 - 5 ]. The influence of physical and social factors on T2DM incidence and health outcomes is also receiving attention [ 6 ].…”

“…The health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of patients with diabetes is often impaired, compared with a population without diabetes, and can be affected by both clinical and psychosocial factors [ 8 , 9 ]. HRQoL is inversely correlated with diabetes severity [ 5 , 9 , 10 ], and improvements in the clinical condition of patients with diabetes, particularly T2DM, are often accompanied by improvements in HRQoL and some other related patient-reported outcomes (PROs), such as health status and psychological well-being [ 8 , 11 - 14 ]. Newer T2DM therapies such as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists are typically associated with weight loss; these therapies have been associated with improvements in weight-related quality of life (i.e.…”