ఎమాద్ అల్మోలెం, రాజా అల్-రద్దాది
Background: People with diabetes face multiple factors that could influence their quality of life. In Saudi Arabia, limited study has been done with regard to assessing the quality of life of diabetic patients. Thus, this research aims to determine the quality of life (in relation to health) as well as its prevalence and predictors among people with diabetes in Makkah.
Methodology: A cross-sectional analytic type of research was done to type 2 diabetic patients (N=299) attending chronic disease clinics at PHCCs in Makah, Saudi Arabia. SF-36 survey was employed in determining the (health- related) quality of life of the 18 years old respondents, focusing on 8 domains such as physical functioning, role- physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional and mental health. The score for each domain (converted to hundred points scale) was then compared with certain characteristics, utilizing various statistical tests.
Results: Result reveals that the highest SF-36 survey score was observed on bodily pain domain (Mean=67.02, SD=26.8) while lowest on role-emotional domain (Mean=28.43, SD=44.3). All domains were significantly associated across different age groups, having obvious significant decrease in scores as age decreases for the role-physical, bodily pain, social-functioning and role-emotional domains. Pearson correlation analysis shows that all domains exhibit significant negative correlation with age, suggesting that with increasing age of the participants, the (health-related) quality of life decreases. Overall, age was identified as the major significant risk factors among 7 out of 8 SF-36 domains.
Conclusion: SF-36 survey result shows that diabetes has big effect on the (health-related) quality of life at different domains. In general, age is considered as the most significant risk factor affecting majority of all domains. This suggests that it must be a priority factor to consider when executing care intervention in relation to improving the quality of life among diabetic patients.