Evaluation of the correlation between marital satisfaction and quality of life in women with type 2 diabetes

Improving the Quality of life (QOL) is considered as one of ultimate goal of chronic disease management such as diabetes. Dealing with the crisis of affecting one of spouses to diabetes leads to decreased marital satisfaction that may affect on their QOL. This study was performed with aim to evaluate the association between marital satisfaction and QOL in women with type 2 diabetes in Mashhad. This descriptive study was performed on 90 women with type 2 diabetes referring to health care centers in Mashhad during 2014–2015. Data collection tool was three questionnaires of disease and demographic characteristics, Azarin Natan H marital satisfaction index and short form-36 quality of life questionnaires. Data were analyzed by SPSS (version 16), and correlation coefficient statistical tests, variance analysis, and Linear Regression. In this study, 30 subjects (33.3%) had low marital satisfaction and 58 (64.4%) moderate marital satisfaction. According to the results of Spearman correlation test, there was a significant relationship between score of marital satisfaction and QOL and dimensions of physical and mental health (P<0.05). Linear regression analysis also indicated that marital satisfaction was able to predict 14.1% variance of Quality of life score in the subjects. Higher marital satisfaction was associated with better quality of life for diabetic women and marital satisfaction is able to predict the quality of life in these patients. Therefore; it is recommended to promote marital satisfaction and perform family counseling in order to improve the QOL for diabetic women, which is one of the main goals of care in diabetic patients.