Assessment of Quality of Life in Urban Indian Population with Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertension

Diabetes mellitus and hypertension have a high prevalence of non-communicable diseases threatening the world. In such a case, the quality of life of these patients is of utmost importance. Quality of life was assessed from both diabetes mellitus and hypertensive patients located in the urban population of India with MINICHAL and WHOQOL-BREF Instruments.

The study was conducted about the quality of life for 20 months in a Private Hospital, Tiruvannamalai, with 445 outpatients suffering from both diabetes mellitus and hypertension. All patients were interviewed using a self-designed questionnaire to assess their quality of life using a MINICHAL scale and a WHOQOL-BREF scale.

In our study, the WHOQOL-BREF scale shows an average quality of life, whereas the MINICHAL scale shows a good quality of life. The correlation between both scales shows a significant positive correlation in all the domains. Diabetes mellitus and hypertension deteriorate the quality of life.

The motivation by the healthcare professional will provide a better quality of life and make them adhere to their medication and lifestyle modifications of the patients. Therefore, self-care is needed to manage and prevent diabetes mellitus and hypertension complications.