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Clinical and Sociodemographic Predictors of the Quality of Life among Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia
Jusoh, Zaleha; Tohid, Hizlinda; Omar, Khairani; Muhammad, Noor Azimah & Ahmad, Saharuddin
Abstract
Background: The quality of life (QoL) describes the multidimensional self-perceived
well-being of a person, which is an important diabetes outcome. This study aimed to measure
the QoL scores among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), as well as their clinical and
sociodemographic predictors.
Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 180 randomly sampled patients at a primary
care clinic on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. A self-administered questionnaire containing
the Audit of Diabetes Dependent Quality of Life-18 (ADDQoL-18) was used.
Results: Most of the respondents (96.7%) were Malay, with a median (interquartile range,
IQR) age of 54.0 (14.0) years old. The majority of them were females (60.0%), married (81.1%) and
from low-income families (63.3%), who attained a secondary education or lower (75.6%). Only
49.4% of them were employed. The mean (standard deviation, SD) ADDQoL-18 average weighted
impact score was −4.58 (2.21) and all 18 domains were negatively affected, particularly the living
condition, family life and working life. The multiple linear regression analysis showed that the age
(adjusted B = 0.05, P = 0.004) and insulin use (adjusted B = −0.84, P = 0.011) were QoL predictors.
Conclusion: T2DM negatively impacts the patient’s QoL in all aspects of their life. The QoL
improvement with age suggests that the older patients had accepted and adapted to their illness.
The need to improve the QoL among insulin users was also highlighted.
Keywords
diabetes mellitus; quality of life; Malaysia; insulin; age
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