Abstract:
Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a growing health issue that adversely affect patients’ quality of
life. Although many studies in Ethiopia have assessed the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of
diabetic patients, few have used the SF-36 tool, which evaluates HRQOL across eight dimensions.
Moreover, limited research has examined the association between HRQOL of Type 2 diabetes mellitus
(T2DM) patients and nutritional factors such as food insecurity and adherence to recommended diabetic
diets. Therefore, the current study aims to fill the evidence gap by assessing type II diabetes patients'
Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) and associated factors in selected public hospitals in Jimma
Town, Southwest Ethiopia, in 2024.
Methods: A cross-sectional study of 350 randomly selected type II diabetic patients at the diabetes
follow-up clinic of selected public hospitals in Jimma town from October 10 to December 11, 2024 was
used to assess health-related quality of life. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews. The
data were entered into EpiData version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 25 for cleaning and analysis.
Descriptive analysis such as frequency, percentage, and mean was done. Variables in bivariate analysis
with a p-value ≤ 0.25 were entered into a multivariable linear regression model and statistical
significance was declared at a p-value less than 0.05.
Results: A total of 342 type II DM patients have participated in this study, making the response rate
97.4%. The mean Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Component Summary (MCS) of
HRQOL scores were 42.40 (±6.08) and 45.20 (±16.59), respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis
revealed that age was significantly associated with both HRQOL summary measures: decreased PCS
score (β = –0.080; 95% CI: –0.146 to –0.014; p = 0.018) and increased MCS (β = 0.345; 95% CI: 0.201
to 0.489; p < 0.001). Poor dietary adherence was significantly associated with decreased PCS (β =
1.795; 95% CI: –3.542 to –0.048; p = 0.044) and d MCS scores (β = –8.933; 95% CI: –12.524 to –5.342;
p < 0.001). Similarly, having formal education was significantly associated with increased PCS (β =
1.804; 95% CI: 0.282 to 3.327; p = 0.020) and increased MCS scores (β = 6.423; 95% CI: 3.180 to
9.667; p < 0.001).
Conclusion: Type 2 Diabetic patients had lower HRQoL in all the domains SF-36 health survey. Age,
education, duration of diabetes mellitus (DM), adherence to recommended diet, DM knowledge, food
insecurity, and diabetic complications were significantly associated with health-related quality of life
