Introduction: Quality of Life (QoL) of Polish women and men with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) and type 2 diabetes (T2DM) was analyzed, taking into consideration acceptance of the illness, the occurrence of depression, complications of diabetes, concentration of glycated haemoglobin, and demographic factors.
Material and methods: The study was conducted among 115 patients with T1DM and 215 patients with T2DM aged 18-60. The patients were divided into women and men. The tool applied for studying QoL was the Polish language version of the Audit of diabetes-dependent QoL questionnaire(ADDQoL) comprising 2 questions related to the general QoL and 19 domains related to aspects of life. Each domain included 2 components: Impact and Importance, and their product determined the value of the weighted impact score. The Acceptance of Illness Scale, Beck Depression Inventory and studied demographic and clinical parameters were also applied.
Results: Patients with both types of diabetes demonstrated a negative influence of the disease in all domains of ADDQoL. Values of the average weighted impact of ADDQoL showed significant associations with diabetic complications in T1DM and gender and depressive symptoms in T2DM. Diabetes negatively affects the QoL of diabetic patients in Poland, especially regarding freedom to eat and to drink and sex life in both genders in T1DM, and freedom to eat and drink, and feelings about the future in both genders, and working life and sex life in T2DM men.
Conclusions: Risk factors for worse QoL are: the occurrence of diabetes complications in T1DM patients and male gender and depression in T2DM patients.
Keywords: ADDQoL; Beck Depression Inventory; acceptance of illness scale; quality of life; type 1 and 2 diabetes.