Research: Education and Psychological Aspects Association between health-related quality of life and impaired glucose metabolism in Iran: the Qazvin Metabolic Diseases Study

Aim To evaluate the association between health-related quality of life and glucose metabolism status in a study population in Qazvin, Iran. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in 1044 people (aged 20-78 years old) between September 2010 and April 2011 in Qazvin, Iran. An oral glucose tolerance test was performed for each participant who had never been diagnosed with diabetes. Participants were characterized as having normal glucose metabolism, pre-diabetes or diabetes according to American Diabetes Association criteria. The short-form 36 questionnaire was used to measure quality of life. Data were analysed using a chi-squared test, anova and ancova. Results A total of 530 (51.7%) of the participants were women, and 24.1 and 11.6% of the participants were categorized as having prediabetes and diabetes mellitus, respectively. Except for the role emotional domain, there was a gradual decrease in the mean scores of every domain of the short-form 36 scale across the three study groups. The mean scores in the physical domains were significantly different among the participants with normal glucose metabolism and those with diabetes. After adding age as covariate, there were no significant differences between the categories in any of the domains. Conclusion There is no association between quality of life domains and glucose metabolism status in Iranian subjects. More longitudinal studies are necessary to investigate the natural history of pre-diabetes, diabetes and quality of life. What's new? This study is one of the few studies that investigate the association between glucose metabolism status and quality of life in a population-based design using an oral glucose tolerance test. It is unclear whether quality of life is diminished at or before the onset of diabetes, among those with pre-diabetes. In the present study we examine health-related quality of life among people with diabetes, people with pre-diabetes and people with normal glucose metabolism.