QUALITY OF LIFE OF DIABETIC PATIENTS ON DIFFERENT TYPES OF ANTIDIABETIC MEDICATIONS

Diabetes mellitus (DM) was found to impair all dimensions of health except mental health and pain and in a more recent multinational study, DM was found to have a notable impact on general health, measured using the Medical Outcomes Short-Form 36 (SF-36).  A cross-sectional, randomized study conducted in Ajman and Sharjah, October 2012 to May 2013, using a self-completed questionnaire and SF-36 health related quality of life (HRQL) questionnaire by 150 diabetic patients on different types of medications and 220 control subjects.  Forty four percent of patients used Insulin for their treatment, 34% used Metformin, 14.7% used combination therapy of Insulin with Metformin and only 6% used Gliclazide.  The mean values of Physical Functioning (PF), Role-Physical (RP), Bodily Pain (BP), General Health (GH), Vitality (V), Social Functioning (SF), Role Emotional (RE), Mental Health (MH), Physical Components Summary (PCS), and Mental Components Summary (MCS) scores were   61.2, 19.5, 59.2, 56.5, 53.0, 55.4, 57.3, 55.6, 4, and 42.1, respectively.  Patients taking an oral therapy had better quality of life than those using an injection of insulin to control their blood sugar.  A combination therapy of Insulin with Metformin didn’t improve the quality of life of patients. Patients who were using a combination therapy of Metformin with Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) had the highest quality of life on all scales of SF-36.  There were no significant differences between other types of medications. The present study showed that diabetic patients reported comparably limited HRQL in all dimensions of SF-36, compared with healthy individuals and disease imposes negative limitations in physical and mental functioning. The present study will help to implement intervention strategies to improve the HRQL in diabetic patients.