Abstract:
Background: Diabetes is a serious, chronic condition that occurs when raised level of blood
glucose occur because the body cannot produce any or enough of the hormone insulin or cannot
effectively use the insulin it produces.
Objective: To assess the health related quality of life and associated factors among patients with
diabetes on follow up at wolkite university specialized hospital south west Ethiopia.
Method: An institutional-based cross-sectional study design was conducted on 420 patients from
June 24 to August 25, 2023, and a systematic random sampling technique was used. A
WHOQOL-BREF, a 26-item questionnaire, was used to measure the outcome variable. The data
was coded and entered in the Epi Data entry form, and then exported into SPSS version 23 for
analysis. A binary logistic regression with a p-value of < 0.25 was included in a multivariable
logistic regression analysis. The next multivariable logistic regression analysis was done, and
variables with P-values of < 0.05 were considered statistically significant at a CI of 95%, and
AOR was used for the interpretation of the strength of the association of the independent
variables. The final model was tested for its goodness of fit using Hosmer and Lemeshow's.
Results: The study included a total of 400 individuals with diabetes, giving a response rate of
92.5% and 210 (52.5%) had a good HRQOL. Being male (AOR 4.3, 95%CI: 2.34, 7.95), being
married (AOR 3.2, 95%CI: 1.78, 5.79) and being educated (AOR 0.04; 95%CI: 0.01, 0.14) were
positively associated with good health related quality of life. Furthermore, absence of diabetic
complications (AOR 4.01, 95%CI: 1.94, 8.42), and absence of comorbidity (AOR 5.1; 95%CI:
2.89, 9.02) had positive relationship with good health related quality of life.
Conclusion: More than half of adult diabetic patients had a good health-related quality of life.
Being male, married, educated and absence of co-morbidity and complications are significantly
associated with a good health-related quality of life.
Recommendation: The health professional should use a holistic approach to management
during follow-up, especially for those patients who have comorbidity, are unmarried, are
developing complications, no formal education, to improve their health related quality of life.
