Quality of life of patients with Diabetes Mellitus Types 1 and 2 from a referal health centre in Minas Gerais, Brazil

ABSTRACT

Quality of life (QoL) characteristics are important in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM 1 and 2). Aim: Evaluate QoL and DM-associated factors among diabetic patients. Methods: Patients attending a University Hospital were interviewed about their sociodemographic, clinical and QoL characteristics, with QoL measured via the EQ-5D. Descriptive analysis, correlation, linear regression, univariate and multivariate analysis were performed. Results: 346 patients took part, comprising 67% women, 59% with DM2, and 32% DM1. DM 1 patients had a mean QoL score of 0.7369, with retinopathy, depression, dyslipidemia and a serious hypoglycemic crisis significantly reducing QoL. Patients with DM type 2 had a mean QoL score of 0.6582, with hypertension, neuropathy, depression, cancer and dyslipidemia significantly reducing QoL. Reduced QoL also correlated with a lack of physical exercise. Males with both DM1 and 2 had a better QoL than females. Conclusion: Need for better disease monitoring and control combined with effective activities to improve self-care, reduce complications and improve patients’ QoL.

KEYWORDS:

• Diabetes Mellitus
• Quality-of-life
• ED-5Q-3L
• health service
• Brazil

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Corrigendum

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the Endocrinology Service in Borges da Costa Infirmary of the Clinic Hospital of the Federal University of Minas Gerais and the patients, clinical staff and residents, nursery and front desk staff and the staff of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA Brasil) for their help and support. Thanks also go to the Research Project fellow and students from the Pharmacology College of the Federal University of Minas Gerais who actively participated in this project and the Medication and Pharmaceutical Support Graduate Course of the Pharmacology course of the Federal University of Minas Gerais.

We also wish to thank the EuroQol group for permitting the use of the EQ-5D instrument for this study and for providing the locally validated language versions of the instrument.

Financial and competing interests disclosure

The authors were supported by the Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais – FAPEMIG (Process No. PPM-00182-13). The write-up was in part supported by a Newton Advanced Fellowship awarded to Professor Augusto Afonso Guerra Junior by the Academy of Medical Sciences, through the UK Government's Newton Fund programme. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.