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Glycaemic control and quality of life among ethnically diverse Malaysian diabetic patients

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Abstract

Purpose

To assess the relationship between glycaemic control and quality of life (QoL) among a sample of Malaysians with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Methods

This study is a cross-sectional hospital-based study involving 256 patients from three major ethnic groups in Malaysia. Data about QoL were collected with the 18-item Audit of Diabetes Dependent QoL questionnaire. Other data about putative predictors of QoL including personal characteristics and disease-related factors were also collected. Hierarchical multiple linear regression was used to determine factors associated with QoL and to control for confounding variables.

Results

The mean age of participants was 56.79 years. Participants were mostly women, employed and married and had attained secondary education. More than a third of the patients had a disease duration of more than 10 years, and about two-thirds had HbA1c ≥ 6.5 %. Those with desired glycaemic control had poorer QoL than those with less than desired glycaemic control moderated by the use of insulin. Hierarchical multiple linear regression showed that desired glycaemic control (HbA1c), diabetes worry, use of insulin, more than 10 years’ duration of diabetes, neuropathy and retinopathy were associated with poor QoL, whereas being satisfied with waiting time for consultation was associated with better QoL.

Conclusions

The results of this study show that diabetes was associated with negative impact on quality of life. The use of insulin to achieve desired glycaemic control was particularly associated with negative impact on QoL.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to extend their thanks to Professor Dr. Clare Bradley from Royal Holloway, University of London for granting us permission to use the ADDQoL-18 via her spin-out company, Health Psychology Research Ltd www.healthpsychologyresearch.com. The authors wish to thank all participants who responded to the questionnaire. The authors wish to express gratitude to the Research Management Institute of the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) for providing a research Grants (600-RMI/ST/DANA 5/3/Dst (82/2011) that enables researcher to accomplish this humble work as a part of PhD project at UiTM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Defence Health, National Defence University of Malaysia, Sungai Besi Camp, 57000, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Aqil Mohammad Daher

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Malaysia

    Syed Ahmad H. AlMashoor

  3. Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, MAHSA University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Than Winn

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  1. Aqil Mohammad Daher
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Correspondence to Aqil Mohammad Daher.

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Daher, A.M., AlMashoor, S.A.H. & Winn, T. Glycaemic control and quality of life among ethnically diverse Malaysian diabetic patients. Qual Life Res 24, 951–958 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-014-0830-5

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