Quality of life in relation to social and disease factors in patients with type 2 diabetes in Lithuania

Abstract

BackgroundDiabetic patients are more than twice as costly to manage as non-diabetic patients, due mainly to the high costs associated with management of diabetic complications. As in most nations of the world, the number of patients with DM is increasing every year in Lithuania. The aim of this study was to determine relation between quality of the life and disease and social factors of patients with type 2 diabetes in Lithuania.Material/MethodsIndependently prepared questions about the subjects of the survey were: gender; age; weight; education; social and marital status; duration of the disease (in years); treatment method; complications; morbidity with arterial hypertension; change in dietary habits after diagnosis of diabetes (started to eat accordingly to recommendations of the therapist); how often nourishment is taken accordingly to recommendations of the therapist; if beginning to exercise after diagnosis of the diabetes; and if exercising, exercises at least 2–3 times per week. Body mass index was calculated as the relation between body mass in kg and height m square (BMI=kg/m2). The hospital anxiety and depression (HAD) scale was used for the evaluation of depression and anxiety. Quality of life of patients was evaluated with the SF-36 questionnaire. We surveyed 1022 patients with type 2 diabetes (372 men and 650 women). Association between quality of the life and explanatory parameters (disease and social factors) were analyzed using the logistic regression analysis model.ResultsWe found that women had lower scores than men in all fields of quality of life (p<0.001). Peroral treatment had a positive impact on the quality of life (QL) fields of the role limitations due to emotional problems (ORa 0.16. 95% CI 0.07–0.34; p<0.001). Treatment with insulin had a positive effect on restriction of activity because of emotional problems (ORa − 0.23. 95% CI 0.11–0.49; p<0.001) and mental health (ORa − 0.38. 95% CI 0.19–0.78; p=0.008), but had a negative impact on bodily pain (ORa − 3.95. 95% CI 1.41–11.09; p=0.009) and physical health (ORa − 4.14. 95% CI 2.03–8.47; p<0.001).ConclusionsAge and BMI are less important factors that can influence quality of life. Peroral treatment positively acted on the role limitations due to emotional problems, bodily pain, and mental health, but had a strong negative effect on emotional state.

The cost of type 2 diabetes in Brazil: evaluation of a diabetes care center in the city of São Paulo, Brazil

“…The quality of life assessment (SF-36v2) showed a lower score in the physical (PCS = 45.22) than in the mental domain (MCS = 47.51), being better for men (p-value = 0.0046 in the PCS domain and 0.0034 in the MCS). This had already been observed on a Lithuanian study [ 27 ] – as opposed to that survey, however, we found no statistically significant difference in the quality of life due to schooling or family income. Other studies have provided divergent results.…”

Glycemic Control Rate of T2DM Outpatients in China: A Multi-Center Survey

“…Further studies need to address this point. A recent study showed that age and BMI are less important factors that can influence quality of life; a weak positive relation was determined for these factors only with 4 of 10 fields of quality of life, including social functioning, emotional state, physical health, and mental health [ 30 ]. A study conducted in the USA indicated that 84.5% of the hospitalized type 2 diabetes patients were overweight or obese (BMI ≥25 kg/m 2 ), suggesting the need for effective weight loss intervention in this population [ 31 ].…”

Related factors of quality of life of type 2 diabetes patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Four fields stand for the Physical Health (PH): Physical Functioning (PF); Role limitations due to Physical health problems (RP); Bodily Pain (BP); General Health perceptions (GH). Another four fields stand for the Mental Health (MH): Vitality (VT); Social Functioning (SF); Role limitations due to Emotional problems (RE); and Emotional State (ES) [ 13 ].…”

“…While authors of these studies used different scales which were mentioned above. Take the factor “complication” for an example, Liu et al [ 19 ] and Xie et al [ 20 ] used the DSQL scale, while Aldona et al [ 13 ] and Zu et al [ 20 ] used the SF series scales to evaluate the QOL of type 2 diabetes patients. Meanwhile, for a same factor measured by a same scale, they even had different opinions about whether it was QOL’s related factor or not.…”

“…Take the factor “Diet control” for an example, Zu et al [ 20 ] showed the results that patients who controlled their diet would have a worse QOL than those who did not control diet. While Aldona et al [ 13 ] showed that the factor “Diet control” was not associated with the QOL of type 2 diabetes patients.…”