OBJECTIVES

: To assess health-related quality of life (HRQoL), associated factors, and utility value of type-2 DM patients compared with the health status of 1,050 general population of Ethiopia.

METHODS

An interviewer-administered, paper based, face-to-face, cross-sectional survey using an Amharic version of European quality of life five-dimension five-level (EQ-5D-5L) scales instrument was applied to a sample of 384 Type-2 DM and 1,050 general population. The sampling process for the general population consisted a multistage stratified quota sampling of geographic area, gender, age group, and religion while a consecutive sampling was employed to recruit type -2 DM patients. Non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis rank test and two-part models were used to estimate the impact of associated factors on health state utility values.

RESULTS

: The mean age of this study was 35.83 years of which 49.70 % were female. A moderate level of HRQoL was measured resulting an EQ-5D-5L utility index of general population (0.942 ± 0.101), type-2 DM patients (0.773 ± 0.278), and EQ-VAS score of 87.27 ± 13.63,78.23 ± 19.48 for the general population and Type-2 DM patients respectively. Health problems for both general population and Type-2 DM patients were reported mostly in the anxiety/depression dimension (43.29%, 64.10%) and least in the self-care dimension (6.57%, 11.72%), respectively. There was a statistically differences in EQ-5D-5L utility index between different marital status (P < 0.001), educational level (P < 0.001), employment status (P < 0.001), complication (P < 0.001), and comorbidities (P <0.001); and Similar results were observed in the EQ-VAS. The EQ-VAS was weakly associated with gender, religion, income level, and insulin frequency.

CONCLUSIONS

Type-2 DM patients had lower score of HRQoL, and individuals, being unmarried, educated, employed, without complication and comorbidities were associated with modestly higher scores of HRQoL.