Metabolic Correlates of Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Background: The increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and associated metabolic complications lead to the development of a syndrome known as "metabolic syndrome" (MetS), which is considered as one of the major risk factor not only for the development of cardiovascular diseases but also have a great impact on the quality of life. Research Design and Methods A descriptive, observational study involving the recruitment of patients with T2DM with and without MetS was carried out in outpatient department of endocrinology. The MetS was defined as per the National Cholesterol Education Program-Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATP III) criteria. Patients with T2DM were screened as per the American Diabetes Association (ADA; ie, fasting blood glucose [FBG] >= 126 mg/dL) and who were using oral antidiabetic drugs. Short Form-36 (SF-36) was used to assess the health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Results: Patients were grouped as T2DM with MetS (n = 100) and T2DM without MetS (n = 100). A greater significant decline was observed in physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) in patients with T2DM with MetS as compared to patients without MetS (P <= .05). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that in patients with T2DM having MetS, age and waist circumference (WC) are independent predictors for worsening of both PCS and MCS aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQOL). In addition, high triglycerides and raised FBG were found to be correlated with the decline in PCS and MCS, respectively. Conclusion: The study demonstrated that patients with T2DM with MetS have overall poor HRQOL as compared to patients with T2DM without MetS.