Determinants and predictors of quality of life of hypertension and type 2 diabetes outpatients in a Nigerian hospital

Abstract

Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL) is emerging as an important outcome in hypertension and diabetes studies. This study aimed to assess the quality of life of hypertension and diabetes patients, in comparison with healthy individuals, to determine socio-demographic and other characteristics affecting quality of life domains of the patients and to identify the predictors of such quality of life. A prospective, cross-sectional, non-randomized, observational study was conducted, in the Consultant Outpatients Pharmacy Department of University of Benin Teaching Hospital. Two- sided independent sample t-tests, and one-way ANOVA, were used to compare means across groups; Fishers exact test was employed to test for proportion, while stepwise multiple linear regression was applied to model the influence of socio- demographic and clinical variables of the patients. Participants were 297 patients (67% females) and 72 healthy volunteers (56% females). Of the participants in the patient group, 192 (64.6%) had only hypertension. Twenty-one, 21 (6.1%) had diabetes only, while 84 (28.2%) had both hypertension and diabetes. Cronbach’s alpha ranged from 0.547-0.799 and 0.628 - 0.708 for patients and healthy groups respectively. Healthy individuals’ QoL scores were slightly higher than the patients’ QoL scores. Education, income, and improved health status were found to significantly affect QoL in hypertension/or diabetes patients. Quality of life of patients with hypertension and diabetes was found to be lower than the healthy individuals in all the domains except the environment domain. Quality of life was also found to be higher in patients whose blood pressure was controlled than those with uncontrolled blood pressure. Furthermore, education, income and current heath status were the major predictors of QoL in hypertension and diabetes patients.

Key words: Quality of life (QoL), hypertension, diabetes, determinants, predictors and Health related quality of life (HRQoL).