Assessing health related quality of life in diabetic subjects by SF 36 questionnaire in a tertiary care diabetes unit of Karachi, Pakistan.

Objective: To assess quality of life (QOL) in patients with diabetes and to explore the related determinants of quality of life. Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out at Baqai Institute of Diabetology & Endocrinology (BIDE), a tertiary care diabetes unit in Karachi Pakistan, from October 2010 to September 2011. Patients with diabetes were recruited from the Outpatient department (OPD) and interviewed on one to one basis by the diabetes educators. SF-36 questionnaire was used as a study tool for assessing QOL. The questionnaire had eight domains i.e. physical functioning (PF), role physical (RP), bodily pain (BP) general health (GH), vitality (VT), social functioning (SF), role emotional (RE) and mental health (MH). Results: A total of 209 patients with diabetes (121 males, 88 females) participated in the study. Overall mean age and duration of the diabetes was 49.12 ± 12.38 years and 9.49 ± 7.16 years respectively. Among eight domains of QOL, better physical functioning was observed in males, < 40 years of age and participants having 5-10 years duration of diabetes. Vitality was better in males as compared to females and also in non-hypertensive compared to hypertensive subjects. General health status was also more stable in males except bodily pain as compared to females. Conclusion: QOL in patients with diabetes was significantly associated with gender, age, duration of diabetes, hypertension and smoking. The assessment of quality of life in patients with diabetes could help to improve patient’s wellbeing. Further large scale studies are needed to validate our findings.