Quality of life in patients with diabetes in a Rural Health and Training Centre.

INTRODUCTION

Diabetes is one of the chronic noncommunicable diseases that degrade the quality of life.

AIMS

To assess the quality of life among people aged 30 to 60 years with diabetes attending a Rural Health and Training Centre (RHTC).

SETTINGS AND DESIGN

This cross-sectional study was conducted in an RHTC of a medical college.

METHODS AND MATERIAL

This cross-sectional study was conducted in an RHTC of a medical college to assess the quality of life (QOL) of diabetic patients aged between 30 and 60 years attending a diabetic clinic. IEC approval was obtained. Informed consent was obtained. The data were collected after interviewing 157 participants with a semistructured questionnaire. QOL was assessed using the World Health Organization's Quality Of Life Questionnaire - short version (WHOQOL-BREF).

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED

The entire collected data were first added to Microsoft Excel. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows version 16.0 was used for data analysis.

RESULTS

The interview was conducted among 157 patients; the majority of them were females, literate, married, and unemployed. The mean ± SD for the physical domain were 56.67 ± 13.73; for the psychological domain, the scores were 62.36 ± 9.58; for the social domain, the scores were 52.05 ± 16.40; and the environmental domain scores were 60.88 ± 8.97.

CONCLUSIONS

The study shows the impact of diabetes mellitus on QOL. Further improvements are needed with proper treatment regimens and good control of blood sugars to improve the overall QOL of diabetic patients.