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TRIAD study: Diabetes complications, comorbidities linked to poorer quality of life
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After assessing health utility scores associated with type 2 diabetes, researchers found that major diabetes complications and comorbidities, such as peripheral vascular disease and other heart diseases, are associated with a decrease in health-related quality of life.
Researchers collected quality-of-life data from Translating Research Into Action for Diabetes (TRIAD), a multicenter, prospective, observational study of diabetes care in managed care.
Ping Zhang, PhD, from the CDC, and colleagues examined data collected from 7,327 patients with type 2 diabetes in 2001. The average age of the patients was 62 years (53.2% women).
“The primary objective of TRIAD was to determine how structural and organizational characteristics of health systems and health care provider groups influence the processes and outcomes of diabetes care,” researchers wrote.
Data were collected from patient surveys and record reviews, and the mean Euro-QoL (EQ)-5D-derived health utility score for patients with diabetes was 0.80, they wrote.
According to data, researchers found that the model utility score was 0.92 for men with type 2 diabetes who were also: not obese; non-insulin-treated; non-Asian and non-Hispanic; with an annual household income of more than $40,000; with no diabetes complications, cardiovascular disease or comorbidities.
However, obese women who smoked and had a lower household income were associated with lower utility scores, they wrote. Furthermore, researchers said it is not clear whether lower utility scores were associated with insulin treatment. They also found that morbid obesity was especially linked to a large reduction in health utility scores.
The most severe complications which caused a reduction in healthy utility scores occurred within the following order: peripheral vascular disease, other heart disease, transient ischemic attack, cerebral vascular accident, nonpainful diabetic neuropathy, congestive heart failure, dialysis, hemiplegia, painful neuropathy and amputation.
“Our empirically derived health utility scores will allow researchers to calculate [quality of life scores] for studies involving individuals living in the US with type 2 diabetes and representing a wide variety of demographic characteristics, treatments, complications, and comorbidities,” researchers concluded.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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