Health related quality of life in patients with type I diabetes mellitus: generic & disease-specific measurement.
OBJECTIVE
An ideal instrument for the assessment of health related quality of life (HRQOL) in patients with diabetes mellitus type I (T1DM) should incorporate the benefits of both generic and disease-specific instruments. The objective of this study was to investigate the responsiveness and the ability to provide information about diabetes-specific associations with HRQOL, of two generic instruments, in comparison with two diabetes-specific instruments, in patients with T1DM.


METHODS
In a Dutch cohort of 234 patients with T1DM we longitudinally assessed HRQOL using both generic and diabetes-specific instruments. We investigated the responsiveness, the associations with diabetes-specific variables and the identification of specific patients by the instruments used.


RESULTS
The generic RAND-36 was able to detect statistically significant and clinically relevant changes in HRQOL over time. Moreover, the RAND-36 was associated with (changes in) diabetes-specific variables. The generic and diabetes-specific instruments partly identified different patients with lowest HRQOL.


CONCLUSIONS
The RAND-36 was highly responsive to changes in HRQOL in patients with T1DM and revealed diabetes-specific associations with HRQOL. A low correlation between the generic and diabetes-specific instruments and partly different identification of patients with lower HRQOL support the complementary use of these instruments in patients with T1DM.
Hart
Huberta E
HE
Institute for Health Policy & Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Bertien.Hart@planet.nl
Redekop
William K
WK
Bilo
Henk J G
HJ
Meyboom-de Jong
Betty
B
Berg
Marc
M
D000328:Adult; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007003:Hypoglycemia / Q000517:prevention & control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010348:Patient Care Team; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires