Does gender affect health-related quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes (ADDQoL) in Central European countries?

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the impact of type 2 diabetes on quality of life (QoL), taking into account gender differences in relation to individual domains of Diabetes-Related Quality of Life Audit (ADDQoL) in adult men and women in Poland, the Czech Republic and Republic of Slovakia.

Material and methods: The participants were 608 patients from the three countries, of whom 278 were women and 330 men with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The tool used was the Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life (ADDQoL).

Results: The overall average QoL was slightly higher in men than in women. In ADDQoL scores, mean weighted impact scores were negative for all domains. The domain which was the most affected by type 2 diabetes in both men and women from all three countries was the 'freedom to eat', while the 'living conditions' domain was the least affected. Diabetes had a slightly negative average weighted impact on most men and women - AWI<-3.0. Except for the different AWI scores in men with type 2 diabetes depending on their education, neither men nor women revealed any significant changes in terms of the impact of education, residence, marital status, smoking, hypertension, or taking anti-hypertensive drugs.

Conclusions: Type 2 diabetes mellitus negatively affects all the domains of life, in both men and women in all three countries; however, this impact is insignificant. The participants assessed their quality of life as good and very good.