QUALITY OF LIFE AND DETERMINANTS AMONG PATIENTS WITH DIABETES IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL IN SOUTH WESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus, which has a wide range of effects on the physical, social and psychological aspects of the well-being of a person, is a common and challenging chronic disease that causes a significant rate of morbidity and mortality. However, studies in our country, by and large, focused on the impact of the disease in terms of mortality and morbidity alone. This study therefore sought to evaluate the perceived quality of life of diabetics and to determine the Socio-demographic factors associated with it and its management among diabetic patients at out –patients’ clinics at two teaching hospitals in south western Nigeria.

This study was a cross sectional study involving 314 patients with diabetes mellitus attending the University College Hospital Ibadan and Lagos University Teaching Hospital Idi-araba Out patient’s clinics, from February to July2012. A socio-demographic questionnaire, the WHOQOL-BREF and Bradley Diabetes Wellbeing specific questionnaire, were interviewer administered. Association between quality of life and variables was tested using Chi squared and multiple regressions analysis at 5% level of significance.

The mean age of the respondents was 58.6±11.9years. One hundred and fifty four (49%) of them were males, (33.3%) had tertiary education. Two hundred and eight persons (66%) of the patients were being treated for other diseases apart from diabetes; mean fasting blood glucose was 117.5±37.3ml/dl. Mean duration of diabetes was 8.1±5.9years. Majority of them (79.6%) had type II diabetes. The commonest co-morbidity and complication were hypertension (50.6%) and retinopathy (16.2%). The overall quality of life of the patients was fairly good. Twelve and 8.3 percent of the patients had a good quality of life score on the Bradley Wellbeing scale and the WHO-Bref Overall quality of life scales respectively. Respondents with tertiary education were seven times more likely to have a good quality of life than those with none or primary education, (OR=0.142, CI=0.030-0.685).

Conclusion: This study has shown that poor education; income and physical complications affect the quality of life of patients. People in the early stage of the disease should be educated on the chronic nature of the disease and necessary life style modification to avoid complications.