Quality of life of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients attending a tertiary care hospital of Northern India: A cross sectional study

INTRODUCTION: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic and progressive metabolic disorder. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) there is “an apparent epidemic of diabetes, which is strongly related to lifestyle and economic change.” Objective of the study was to assess the quality of life of people living with type 2 diabetes mellitus and factors associated with quality of life. METHODS: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 215 patients with diabetes mellitus. Quality of life was assessed using a generic instrument SF 36. The data was analyzed using SPSS, version 24.0. An independent t test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to compare the means of each domain of quality of life within groups of various independent variables. RESULTS: The mean age of respondents was 52.5 ± 11.0 years. The majority (87.4%) of the patients were married, Hindu by religion (88.8%), and belonged to upper socio economic class (28.8%). The mean duration since diagnosis of diabetes was 7.82 ± 6.0 years, and 80.4 percent of patients were on oral hypoglycemic agents. Hypertension was found to be the most common (24.6%) comorbidity. Age, education, socioeconomic status, duration of diabetes, type of treatment, complication of diabetes, comorbidities, and body mass index (BMI) were found to be significantly associated with various domains of SF-36. CONCLUSIONS: Diabetes has an adverse effect on quality of life of patients with diabetes. The most affected domain in male and female patients was vitality domain followed by general health domain of quality of life.