The quality of life of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in general practice

Abstract

Background: Improving patients' duration and quality of life (QoL) is the long-term goal in treatment of diabetes mellitus. Aim: To estimate the QoL of patients with type 2 diabetes followed in primary care, using the newly developed and validated 'Well-being Enquiry for Diabetes' (WED) questionnaire. The questionnaire evaluates four subscales of QoL: diabetes-related somatic symptoms (Symptoms); diabetes-related worries (Discomfort); mental health (Serenity); familiar relationship and social network (Impact). Patients and methods: We randomly selected 100 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in our practice, of whom 98 completed the questionnaire (mean age ±SD: 64.6±9.5; 44 males, 54 females; duration of disease 8.3±6.0 years; 23.5% on diet only, 67.3% on oral hypoglycaemic agents, 5.1% on both oral hypoglycaemic agents and insulin, and 4.1% on insulin monotherapy). Micro- or macroangiopathy was present in 33 patients (33.7%, 15 males, 18 females). In each patient we considered the following variables: age, gender, duration of disease, type of treatment in use, presence of complications. Mann-Whitney test, Kruskal-Wallis test and multiple regression analysis were used for statistical analysis (p<0.05 as significant). Results: Females had lower total WED scores than males (p=0.0001) and lower scores in each of the four subscales. Patients with chronic complications had lower scores than patients without complications (p=0.19). Patients on insulin showed lower total WED scores than patients treated with oral hypoglycaemic agents or diet only. Multivariate analysis showed a correlation between WED scores and gender (p=0.0001) or complications (p=0.049), but not with duration of disease (p=0.28) or age (p=0.15). Conclusion: The WED questionnaire appears to be a simple, reliable measure of diabetes-related QoL in primary care. Females had significantly lower scores than males, with the greatest difference in the area of Serenity. This is in accordance with general data showing higher psychiatric morbidity (anxiety, depression, eating disorders) among females. The WED provides GPs with a tool for auditing care of patients with diabetes and to identify type 2 diabetes patients in whom interventions may be needed to improve their QoL.