Diabetes mellitus control and quality of life in adolescent in Rwanda

Abstract

Background The adolescent with diabetes mellitus (DM) can have some difficulties related the reality of his/her long term chronic illness. The main objective of diabetes management is glycemic control and some problems related to diabetes quality of life can affect metabolic control. As there is little existing information about quality of life and diabetes mellitus control in our region, we used the diabetes related quality of life for youth short form (DQOLY-SF) questionnaire to assess quality of life (QOL) and determine factors that lead to improve QOL in Rwandan adolescents. Methods In thisqualitative study where 140 adolescents living with diabetes aged 10 to 18 years were recruited from RDA clinic, we determined whether there is correlation between DQOLY-SF score and diabetes control. The study period was September to December/ 2015. DQOLY-SF consists of 22 items on impact of diabetes, worries and health perception. DQOLY-SF score less than 21 relate good QOL while above relate poor quality of life. We usedPatient characteristics and medical conditions from patient logbook and we only considered HbA1c of the day of visit. Results In bivariate analysis the variable province was associated with DQOLY-SF, p value(0.001) and with Pearson correlation of HbA1c with DQOLY-SF score was found to be statistically significant with weak correlation r(138) = 0.188, p < 0.05, with Hb1Ac levels explaining 0.3% of variation in DQOLY-SF Score. In multivariate analysis four factors such as age (p value 0.048), Hypoglycemic episodes (p value 0.042), province south or north (p < 0.005), live with someone different to his/her parents (p value 0.008) added were predictor for DQOLY-SF score F (20, 99) = 2.10, p =0.008, R2 = 0.29, p< 0.05. Conclusion Good metabolic control (Low HbA1c) was associated with better diabetes related quality of life, less worries about diabetes and good health perception. Older age, hypoglycemic episodes, living with someone different to his/her parents, residence area(from south or north)were associated with poor Diabetes related quality of life in Rwandan adolescents.