Health-Related Quality of Life and its Determinants Among Women With Diabetes Mellitus: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

BACKGROUND Diabetes is a chronic and threatening condition. However, there are controversies on the factors affecting the health related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with diabetes. OBJECTIVES The current study aimed to evaluate HRQOL and its determinants among females with type II diabetes referred to Diabetes Clinic of Khoy city, Northwest of Iran. PATIENTS AND METHODS This cross-sectional study was performed on 352 eligible females with diabetes referring to Diabetes Clinic of Khoy. The study data were collected using a three-part instrument including a socio-demographic questionnaire, a questionnaire to assess patients' knowledge on diabetes and the world health organization's quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire. Based on descriptive and inferential statistics, analyses were conducted using frequency, independent samples t-test, correlation coefficient and regression analysis. RESULTS The total mean score of QOL was 58.02 ± 17.63. The lowest and the highest mean scores were observed in physical health and social relationship domains (53.84 ± 17.09) and (65.08 ± 14.87), respectively. The regression models revealed that age, education, duration of disease, and family income were significantly associated with all areas of quality of life (P < 0.05). The results also revealed that co-morbidity was significantly correlated with the overall quality of life and the physical health domain (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS The mean score of quality of life (QOL) in females with diabetes was far from desirable condition. These findings can help physicians and healthcare providers to design suitable interventions to improve the patients QOL.