Effect of Glimepiride on Health Related Quality of Life in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetes treatment regimens often require changes of lifestyle and behaviour that influence patients' daily functioning and well-being. Therefore, 'health-related quality of life' (HRQoL) is a valuable outcome indicator alongside traditional biomedical measures. Glimepiride is one of the commonly used sulfonylurea oral anti-diabetic drug in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. This community based cross sectional study was carried out on 424 type 2 diabetes mellitus patients on different oral anti-diabetic drugs to assess the influence of glimepiride on HRQoL. Short-Form 36 (SF-36 of the Medical Outcome Study Group) was used to measure the ` health-related quality of life' (HRQoL). Inter group comparison of the mean SF-36 scores was done using independent samples 't' test in SPSS version 16.0. SF-36 score was lower in patients being treated with gimepiride along with other oral anti-diabetic drugs (54.29 +/- 22.43) as compared to those treated without glimepiride (69.09 +/- 20.57). SF-36 and its eight domain scores had significant association with the treatment option along with other key factors like duration of the disease, comorbidity, coexisting complications, and habitual physical activity. The choice of the oral anti-diabetic drug influences the 'health-related quality of life' in patients of type 2 diabetes mellitus. HRQoL was higher in patients using oral anti-diabetic drugs that had better tolerability and less fear of hypoglycemia.