Predictors of Health-Related Quality of Life among Patients with Diabetes Mellitus

The health of general population cannot be well characterized from the analyses of mortality and morbidity statistics alone, particularly for patients of chronic diseases including diabetes mellitus. It is equally important to contemplate health in terms of people's assessment of their sense of well-being and ability to perform social roles. A number of reasons are there to measure the health-related quality of life among patients with diabetes mellitus. For one thing, diabetes patients are highly interested in functional capacity and well-being. On the other hand, patients in the same clinical manifestations might have different responses. Either general or specific instruments could be utilized to measure the health-related quality of life of diabetes patients. Choice of the instrument depends on time of the measurement, validity of the instrument and the interpretability. In Ethiopia, short form 36 (SF-36) instruments were utilized and the highest (63.2 ± 34.4) and the lowest (30.2 ± 22.9) mean score scored in physical functioning and general health domain respectively. The study indicated that age, sex, marital status, educational status, feeling of stigmatized, co-morbidity status, chronic complication and body mass index are some of the predictors of health-related quality of life for patients living with diabetes mellitus.