Socioeconomic determinants affecting the quality of life among diabetic and hypertensive patients in a rural area, Egypt

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus and hypertension have a high prevalence of growth in all countries threatening to become a global epidemic risk, thus the quality of life this category of patients is extremely important. The aim of this study was to assess the socioeconomic determinants affecting the quality of life among diabetic and hypertensive patients. PATIENT AND METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in a rural family health care center in El-Batanon village, in the delta region of Menoufia, Egypt. The recruited sample population was 401 participants over six month's context time frame (diabetic and hypertensive participants were 224 and 117 respectively). All participants were interviewed using a questionnaire to assess the demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, type, duration and treatments of illness and the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey. RESULTS: Patients with Diabetes presented a poorer health related quality of life than those with hypertension in perceived health in the areas of role-physical (RP) (P < 0.05), bodily pain (BP) (P < 0.001), general health (GH) (P < 0.05), vitality (VT) (P < 0.05), social functioning (SF) (P < 0.001) and role-emotional (RE) (P < 0.001). Age, Sex, Family size, socioeconomic score and occupation were the main Socioeconomic Determinants affecting the quality of life among diabetic and hypertensive patients. CONCLUSION: Diabetes and hypertension seem to comparably impair the health-related quality of life. There is a need to develop and implement effective targeted intervention to help the patients to cope with their life in a better way.