The Burden of Severe Hypoglycemia on Quality of Life among Diabetes Mellitus Patients in a Tertiary Level Hospital of Bangladesh

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the impact of hypoglycemia on health-related quality of life from a patient perspective. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 164 type 2 diabetes patients admitted due to severe hypoglycemia from August 2015 to October 2016 at Bangladesh Institute of Research and Rehabilitation in Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders, in Dhaka. Impact of severe hypoglycemia on health-related quality of life in diabetic patients was evaluated using the disease-specific questionnaire audit of diabetes-dependent quality of life-19 (ADDQOL-19). RESULTS: The median ADDQOL score was calculated at −3.31. Totally, 88 (53.7%) patients reported an ADDQOL score of − 3.31 or more, and 76 (46.3%) patients had an ADDQOL score of less than −3.31 (lower quality of life [QoL]). After considering weighting, “Freedom to eat” (mean Weighted Impact Score-6.32 ± 1.94) was the most and “Holidays” (mean Weighted Impact Score-0.96 ± 0.19) was the least affected QoL domains, respectively. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, severe hypoglycemia impact on ADDQOL was related with age (odds ratio [OR] 0.932, 95% confidence intervals [CIs] 0.897–0.969, P < 0.001), sex (OR 0.088, 95% CIs 0.023–0.338, P < 0.001), glycated hemoglobin (%) (OR 0.613, 95% CIs 0.422–0.890, P = 0.010), and marital status (OR 9.264, 95% CIs 2.467–34.790, P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this analysis suggest hypoglycemia impacts heavily on the well-being and quality of life of people with diabetes, and every effort should be made to minimize hypoglycemia while aiming for good glycemic control.