title: The impact of diabetes mellitus and other chronic medical conditions on health-related Quality of Life: is the whole greater than the sum of its parts?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Diabetes mellitus (DM) is an important public health concern, the impact of which is increased by the high prevalence of co-existing chronic medical conditions among subjects with DM. The aims of this study were therefore to (1) evaluate the impact of DM and co-existing chronic medical conditions on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) (which could be additive, synergistic or subtractive); (2) to determine the extent to which the SF-6D (a single-index preference measure) captures the multidimensional information provided by the SF-36 (a profile measure).
  
  
  METHODS
  Using data from a cross-sectional, population-based survey of Chinese, Malay and Indians in Singapore, we developed 9 separate multiple linear regression models, with each SF-36 scale or SF-6D index score being the dependent variable for one model. The influence of DM and a second chronic medical condition (hypertension (HTN), heart disease (HD), musculoskeletal illnesses (MS)) and their interactions were studied after adjusting for the influence of potential confounding variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 5,224 subjects, the prevalence of DM, HTN, HD and MS were 5.9%, 10.7%, 2.4% and 26.6% respectively. DM lowered SF-36 scores by more than 2 points on 3 SF-36 scales and lowered SF-6D scores by 0.03 points. Subjects with DM and HTN, DM and HD or DM and MS experienced further lowering of SF-36 scores exceeding 2 points on at least 6 scales and further lowering of SF-6D scores by 0.05, 0.08 and 0.10 points respectively. Generally, DM and co-existing medical conditions exerted additive effects on HRQoL, with the exception of DM and heart disease, where a subtractive effect was noted. SF-6D index scores generally reflected the patterns of influence of DM and chronic medical conditions on SF-36 scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  DM and chronic medical conditions generally reduced HRQoL in this multiethnic general population in an additive, rather than synergistic or subtractive fashion. In this study, the SF-6D was a reasonably good summary measure for the SF-36.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore, 18 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Republic of Singapore. griwhl@sgh.com.sg
authors.forename: Hwee-Lin
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Wee
authors.forename: Yin-Bun
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Cheung
authors.forename: Shu-Chuen
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Kok-Yong
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Fong
authors.forename: Julian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thumboo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000523:psychology; D015897:Comorbidity; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000208:ethnology; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications / Q000208:ethnology; D007194:India / Q000208:ethnology; D016014:Linear Models; D008296:Malaysia / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000208:ethnology; D015995:Prevalence; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation; D011788:Quality of Life; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D012846:Singapore