Quality of Life in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: Application of WHOQoL-BREF Scale

Diabetes is one of the most important chronic diseases which may have a negative effect on the quality of life (QoL) of diabetic patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate QoL in patients with type 2 diabetes living in rural regions of Neyshabur (a city in the northeast of Iran) as well as determine some factors associated with it, by using the WHOQoL-BREFE scale. Methods and Materials: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 1847 patients with type 2 diabetes were studied in Neyshabur from April to July 2012. The Iranian version of the WHOQoL-BREF questionnaire was used to measure QoL. Linear Regression Model was conducted to determine the relation between QoL of study population and various variables. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05 for all analyses. Data were analyzed using SPSS software ver16. The mean age of the study population was 59.65 ± 12.3 yr (Range: 30-97 yr). The majority of participants were female (69.8%). The overall observed Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for WHOQoL-BREF was 0.93 and for each domain of it ranged from 0.69 to 0.86. The total mean score of WHOQoL-BREF was 12.18. The lowest and the highest mean scores were observed in Psychological health domain (11.73) and Social relationship domain (12.66), respectively. Backward multiple linear regression model revealed that Education levels, Marital Status and Household Income were significantly associated with all domains of WHOQoL-BREF (P < 0.05). The findings from this study appear that surveyed diabetic patients have WHOQoL-BREF scores that might be considered to indicate a moderate to low QoL, so it seems that providing international programs is necessary to improve QoL of them