| dc.description.translatedabstract | Background: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease, widely spread in the developed
world, which, according to the World Health Organization, tends to be classified as an
epidemic. Diabetes mellitus type 2 constitutes approximately 90-95% of all cases of
diabetes with a prevalence of almost 8.6% of the world population. It is a disease that,
while initially may appear without any symptoms, may cause serious and irreversible
complications since the time of the diagnosis. Many times, the signs and the symptoms of
the complications themselves betray the existence of the disease.
Aim: The purpose of this research is to study the, health-related, quality of life of patients
who suffer from diabetes mellitus type 2 and their treatment satisfaction. An additional
aim is to investigate any effects from a number of demographic, anthropometric and
socioeconomic factors in the perceptions of diabetic patients for health and illness. A
better understanding of the opinions and beliefs of diabetic patients about health and
disease will help us to develop programs for the prevention and treatment of diabetes
with a purpose of early detection of the disease and in order to deal with any
complications.
Methods: Regarding the sample under investigation, 130 patients with type 2 diabetes
were studied, 54.6% men and 45.4% women, with a mean age of 64.6 years, that are
followed up in an outpatient clinic of a hospital in Western Attica and in a Health Center
of the same region. For the purposes of the investigation, patients were invited,
voluntarily and anonymously, to fill in three instruments for measuring quality of life,
consisting of two general questionnaires, the EQ-5D and SF-36, and a specific
questionnaire for diabetes treatment satisfaction, DTSQ. In addition, the patients were
asked to provide information about their past medical history in order to use it in the
statistical analysis of the results. The analysis includes descriptive statistics, correlations
of the questionnaires with demographic and clinical variables and a study of correlations
between the measuring instruments.
Results: According to the research results and after the statistical analysis of the data, it is
indicated that younger men, diabetic patients, married, patients with the highest level of
education, with glycosylated hemoglobin less than 7, without complications, with the shorter duration of disease and treated only with tablets are those that present the greatest
scores on certain dimensions of the questionnaires SF-36 and EQ-5D thus expressing a
better level of quality of life. Regarding treatment satisfaction, pensioners who receive
antidiabetic tablets and have showed no complications of the disease appear more
satisfied with the treatment of diabetes, registering the highest scores in the questionnaire
DTSQ. Contrary, the BMI does not seem to be a statistically significant factor affecting
quality of life of the sample nor treatment satisfaction. Finally, the research showed a
strong positive correlation between the measuring instruments of health-related quality of
life, SF-36 and EQ-5D, while the correlations between these indicators and the
questionnaire of treatment satisfaction, DTSQ, were weaker.
Conclusion: Health-related quality of life of diabetic patients and treatment satisfaction are influenced and dependent on a series of demographic, clinical and socioeconomic
variables such as sex, age, professional status, educational level, glycosylated
hemoglobin, the presence of disease complications and the use of injectable drugs. These
factors should be studied during the development of preventive programs and health
education for diabetes in order to control them, which will result in reducing the
incidence of the disease and dealing with its complications | el_GR |
