Impact of diabetes on physical and psychological aspects of quality of life of diabetics in Erbil city, Iraq

Abstract EN

Background and objectives Quality of life is an important health outcome of all health interventions and has become a core issue in diabetic care.

The objective of this study was to assess the impact of diabetes upon physical and psychological aspects of quality of life.

Methods A case-control study was conducted at Shahid Layla Qassim Health Center for Diabetic Patients in Erbil city.

A purposive sample of 150 types 1 and type 2 diabetic patients was selected according to the criteria of the study and compared to150 age and sex-matched controls free from diabetes.

Data were collected through an application of the physical and psychological domains of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-100) questionnaire.

Results Both physical and psychological domains were significantly lower (P< 0.001) for the diabetics than controls, with stronger effects on physical than psychological domain.

There were highly significant statistical variations in the physical domain of QOL in relation to age (P= 0.017), gender (P= 0.004), level of education (P = 0.003), marital status (P=0.001), type of work (P=0.007), duration of diabetes (P< 0.001) and medications acquisition (P= 0.040).

A highly significant statistical variations in the psychological domain of QOL in relation to the level of education (P=0.016), marital status (P=0.049), type of work (P=0.015), and medications acquisition (P=0.001) were demonstrated.

Gender variation have a borderline statistical significance (P = 0.052).

Conclusion Diabetic patients had lower physical and psychological QOL compared to controls.

Diabetes had a greater impact on the QOL of females than males.

Older diabetics are more affected physically than psychologically.

Changes in health related QOL should be a part of management of diabetics.