Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the greatest threats to global health and development of the 21th Century worldwide. In Bulgaria, it affects 9.6% of residents between ages 18-69 and has a profound impact on healthcare, economy and individuals. Diabetes and its complications are major causes of early death in our country - each year 4 125 women and 4 000 men die of diabetes-related complication. Diabetes not only reduces patient’s physical wellbeing but also compromises other aspects of Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL). The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of demographic factors and glycaemic control on quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Material and methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in a sample of 540 adult patients under secondary care. Respondents were recruited from nine randomly selected outpatient endocrinology practices, 25% of all practices with contract to the Regional Health Insurance Fund Plovdiv-second largest district in Bulgaria. The survey was administered with disease-specific instrument ADDQoL -19.

Results: A total of 411 diabetic patients with average age of 59.9+11.6 years old participated in this study. ‘Freedom to eat’ was the Audit of Diabetes-dependent Quality of Life domain with the greatest negative average weighted impact (−4.0, on a scale of −9 to 3). In univariate analyses, older age, female sex, low socioeconomic status, cardiovascular disease, microvascular complications, insulin use correlated with decreased quality of life.

Conclusion: Patients with type 2 diabetes have a substantially decreased HRQoL in association with symptomatic complications. The data suggest that prevention of complications have the greatest potential to improve health-related quality of life in type 2 diabetes.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus, Health-Related Quality of Life, ADDQoL-19, Bulgaria