Measuring health‐related quality of life in non‐complicated diabetes patients may be an effective parameter to assess patients at risk of a more serious disease course: a cross‐sectional study of two diabetes outpatient groups

Aim. To describe health‐related quality of life in diabetes outpatients and investigate the impact of diabetic foot ulcers, by comparing a group of patients with and without diabetic foot ulcers complications. Secondary to study the impact of sociodemographic and clinical variables in the two groups. Design. Cross‐sectional study. Methods. The study involved 130 diabetes outpatients and 127 diabetic foot ulcers patients. Health‐related quality of life was measured with the generic questionnaire Short Form‐36, consisting of eight dimensional scores. All scores were adjusted for differences in age and gender (estimated marginal means). Differences were compared with anova calculations, by the use of Predictive Analytics Software, pasw (version 17.0). Results. This study confirms that health‐related quality of life differs significantly between disease subgroups when measured with Short Form‐36. Diabetic foot ulcers had a major negative impact on 7/8 subscales on the Short Form‐36 compared to the diabetes outpatients group. health‐related quality of life decreased with increasing amount of complications and comorbidity in the diabetes outpatients group, with cardiovascular complications being the most pronounced predictor of lower health‐related quality of life scores. Conclusion. Patients who have developed diabetic foot ulcers reports much poorer health‐related quality of life than compared to diabetes outpatients. Factors linked to the development of late complications were not detected in the diabetic foot ulcers group, such as cardiovascular comorbidity and neuropathy. Relevance to clinical practice. Health‐related quality of life measurement in early stages of disease may detect patients at risk of a more serious disease course and who consequently are in need of a more intensive follow‐up.