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Factors associated with poor-to-moderate quality of life among pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus: a cross-sectional study in Malaysia

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to identify factors associated with poor-to-moderate quality of life (QOL) among women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in two tertiary hospitals in Malaysia.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 526 pregnant women with GDM in two tertiary hospitals in Malaysia. Diabetes-related QOL was assessed using the Asian Diabetes Quality of Life Scale (AsianDQoL). Socio-demographic characteristics, glucose monitoring treatments for GDM, past obstetric history, concurrent medical problems and a family history of diseases were captured from patient records. A multiple logistic regression was used for analysis.

Results

A total of 526 respondents with GDM entered the analysis. The median age of the respondents was 32 (interquartile range = 7) while 82.3% were Malay women. More than half of the respondents (69.5%) received an oral hypoglycaemic agent (OHA), and/or diet modification in controlling their GDM. The study reported that 23.2% of the respondents had poor-to-moderate QOL. Those with a family history of depression and/or anxiety (adjusted Odds ratio [AOR] 6.934, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.280–21.081), and a family history of GDM (AOR 1.814, 95% CI 1.185–2.778) were at higher odds of suffering from poor-to-moderate QOL compared to those without a family history. Similarly, those who received insulin, with or without OHA, and/or are on diet modification (AOR 1.955, 95% CI 1.243–3.074) were at higher odds of suffering from poor-to-moderate QOL compared to those receiving OHA and/or diet modification.

Conclusion

Nearly one-quarter of Malaysian women with GDM have poor-to-moderate QOL. GDM women with a family history of depression and/or anxiety, family history of GDM, and those who received insulin, with or without OHA, and/or are on diet modification were associated with poor-to-moderate QOL.

Trial registration: NMRR-17-2264-37814.

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Data availability

The datasets used and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on request.

Abbreviations

AsianDQoL:

Asian Diabetes Quality of Life questionnaire

AOR:

Adjusted Odds ratio

GDM:

Gestational diabetes mellitus

OHA:

Oral hypoglycaemic agent

QOL:

Quality of Life

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Acknowledgements

All the researchers of this study would like to extend their thanks to all the respondents with GDM who participated in this study and medical officers, as well as medical assistants of Hospital Serdang and Hospital Kuala Lumpur who were involved in this study. The researchers would also like to express their sincere appreciation to the developer of the validated questionnaire used in this study (Goh SG, Rusli BN and Khalid BA), for giving their permission for the use of the English, Malay and Chinese versions of AsianDQoL questionnaire.

Funding

This research received its funding from the Universiti Putra Malaysia under Putra Graduate Initiative (UPM/700-2/1/GP-IPS/2018/9593800), High Impact Grant (UPM/800-3/3/1/GPB/2018/9659600) and Graduate Research Fellowship (UPM/SPS/GS48750). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Kai Wei Lee, Siew Mooi Ching & Navin Kumar Devaraj

  2. Malaysian Research Institute On Ageing, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Siew Mooi Ching & Vasudevan Ramachandran

  3. Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Fan Kee Hoo

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Seng Choi Chong

  5. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Maiza Tusimin

  6. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Faith En Ang

  7. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, 50586, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Noraihan Mohd Nordin

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  1. Kai Wei Lee
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Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: KWL, SMC. Performed the data collection: KWL, FEA. MT and NMN. Analysed the data: KWL, SMC, HFK, and VR. Wrote the paper: KWL, SMC, MT, SCC and NKD. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Siew Mooi Ching.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The ethics approval was obtained from the Medical Research Ethics Committee (MREC), Ministry of Health, Malaysia (NMRR-17-2264-37814).

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Written consent was obtained from the respondents prior to data collection.

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Lee, K.W., Ching, S.M., Hoo, F.K. et al. Factors associated with poor-to-moderate quality of life among pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus: a cross-sectional study in Malaysia. Qual Life Res 29, 2725–2736 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-020-02532-3

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