Self-rated health and factors influencing responses among young Egyptian type 1 diabetes patients

BACKGROUND Patients diagnosed with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) face major daily challenges. Self-rated health (SRH) is a global measure of an individual's health related quality of life (HRQoL) and is based on the question, "In general, how would you rate your health?" Subjects rate their health as excellent, very good, good, poor or very poor. Our objective was to determine the HRQoL using the SRH measure and determine factors influencing responses. We hypothesized that better SRH responses were associated with shorter diabetes duration, better compliance and better glycemic control. METHODS The standardized SRH measure was the instrument used for health related quality of life assessment. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between SRH responses and selected variables. RESULTS 124 subjects, 64 females (51.6%) and 60 males (48.4%) were included. Average age was 13.08 (± 3.19) and average diabetes duration was 5.82 (± 1.60), while the mean HbA1C was 8.02 (± 1.60). The majority rated their health as good (31%), 29% rated it as excellent, 11% as very good, 14% as poor and 15% as very poor. Regression analysis showed that regular exercise was the only predictor that was independently and significantly associated with a "better" self-health rating, with an OR of 12.84, CI of 1.425-115.727 and a p value of 0.023. CONCLUSION Regular exercise among Egyptian children with T1DM is strongly associated with a "better" overall health related quality of life and should be repeatedly encouraged.