Health-related quality of life and associated factors among patients with diabetes mellitus at the University of Gondar referral hospital

Abstract

Background: Diabetes mellitus, which has a wide range of effects on the physical, social and psychological aspects of the well-being of a person, is a common and challenging chronic disease that causes a significant rate of morbidity and mortality. However, studies in our country, by and large, focused on the impact of the disease in terms of mortality and morbidity alone. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and associated factors of diabetic patients at the University of Gondar referral hospital, Ethiopia. Methods: A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted at the University of Gondar referral hospital from April to May 2017. A generic World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire was used to measure the HRQOL. The data were analyzed by Stata version 12. Multiple Linear Regression analysis with P-value 0.05 was used to measure the degree of association between HRQOL and independent variables. Results: A total of 408 patients with Diabetes Mellitus were included in the study. The HRQOL scores for physical, psychological, social and environmental domains were 50.9, 54.5, 55.8 and 47.3, respectively. Diabetes-related complications had a significant association with all except the psychological domain. Higher HRQOL was associated with exercising, following the recommended diet, foot care, sensible drinking and the absence of co-morbidities. However, old age, unemployment and being single and widower had a significant association with lower HRQOL. Conclusion: The environmental and physical domains of HRQOL scores were the lowest compared to the social and psychological domains. Old age and living in rural area had a significant association with a lower HRQOL, whereas the absence of diabetes-related complications, exercising, general diet and foot care had a significant association with better HRQOL of patients. Therefore, strong advice on the recommended lifestyle is important, and old patients and rural dwellers should get due attention. In addition, the prevention of diabetes-related complications is important to improve the patient HRQOL which is an important outcome measurement from the patient's perspective related to the impact of the disease. Therefore, including HRQOL assessment as part of routine management is necessary.

Heath related quality of life and associated factors among diabetes patients in sub-Saharan countries: a systemic review and meta-analysis

“…Table 1 describes the characteristics of the studies included in this review. Five studies were found in Ethiopia [ 10 , 14 , 18 , 20 , 22 , 30 ], four in Nigeria [ 11 , 13 , 15 ], two in South Africa [ 12 , 23 ], one in Botswana [ 21 ], Ghana and Nigeria [ 9 ], Mauritius [ 16 ], Swaziland [ 17 ] and Uganda [ 19 ]. All of the studies were done by cross-sectional study design.…”

“…Reba et al [ 20 ] Ethiopia Cross-sectional 344 To assesses the level of HRQoL and its associated factors among adults with and without diabetes WHO-QoL-BREF Linear regression β and 95%CI 5. Aschalew et al [ 10 ] Ethiopia Cross-sectional 408 To assess the HRQOL & associated factors of diabetic patients at the University of Gondar referral hospital, Ethiopia WHO-QoL-BREF Linear regression β and 95%CI 6. Muze et al [ 18 ] Ethiopia Cross-sectional 356 To assess quality of life and associated factors among diabetic patients having follow-up in diabetes clinic in Jimma University Specialized Hospital, Jimma, south west Ethiopia SF-36 Logistic regression OR & 95%CI 7.…”

“…Regarding the tools that used to assess the level of HRQoL, Eight studies were used WHO-QoL-BREF [ 6 , 9 , 10 , 14 , 15 , 20 , 22 , 23 ], three studies were used short-form-36 (SF-36) [ 11 , 18 , 21 ], two studies were used D-39 [ 12 , 17 ], each one study was used EQ-5D [ 13 ], QOLID [ 19 ] and both SF 36 and ADDQoL-19 [ 16 ].…”

“…Reba et al [ 20 ] Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes 7 Low risk 5. Aschalew et al [ 10 ] Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes 7 Low risk 6. Muze et al [ 18 ] Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes 7 Low risk 7.…”

“…Among 16 selected studies, eight of them were used WHO-QoL-BREF [ 6 , 9 , 10 , 14 , 15 , 20 , 22 , 23 ] to measure levels of HRQoL among diabetes patients. From these eight studies, five of them have reported the mean of each domain HRQoL.…”