Health-related quality of life in people with diabetes mellitus: An Asian perspective

Abstract

In this study among multi-ethnic Singaporeans, we first evaluated the impact of diabetes mellitus (DM) on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and found that DM and other coexisting chronic medical conditions generally influenced HRQoL in an additive fashion. We also found that Indians with DM were more likely to have worse HRQoL than Chinese and Malays with DM. We next evaluated the cross-cultural suitability of several HRQoL instruments and found that the English and Chinese language versions of the SF-6D were equivalent, thus allowing for data from both sources to be pooled. In addition, we found that the ADDQoL was valid and reliable for assessing HRQoL among Singaporeans with DM. Furthermore, we found that Singaporean children/ adolescents conceptualized HRQoL similarly to their Western counterparts, thus providing evidence for the conceptual validity of HRQoL instruments in the Singaporean pediatric population. Finally, we found the KINDL to be valid and reliable for assessing HRQoL among Singaporean children/ adolescents.