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Diabetes and its impact on health-related quality of life: a life table analysis

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Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the health burden of diabetes and determine its impact on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in a population with a high prevalence of chronic conditions.

Methods

A representative sample of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) was used to estimate prevalence of diabetes and mean health utility index (HUI), a utility-based measure of HRQOL. Diabetes-deleted life expectancy (LE) and health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE) were derived to measure HRQOL.

Results

Diabetic individuals comprised 6.8% of the sample and accounted for 14% of total deaths from 2001 to 2005. Life Expectancy at age 15 was 61.3 years for men and 66.7 years for women, of which 53.0 and 57.0 years, respectively, were spent with perfect health (86.4 and 85.5%). Eliminating diabetes would extend both the overall LE and HALE for men by 1.3 and 1.4 years, and women by 2.0 and 1.7 years, respectively. People with diabetes had a significantly lower HRQOL than people without diabetes (mean HUI: 0.78 vs. 0.88, P < 0.01).

Conclusion

The burden of illness from diabetes in NL is considerable. Using cause-eliminated LE and HALE provides a robust approach for assessing HRQOL that may have important implications for diabetes surveillance, prevention, and management strategies.

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Abbreviations

HRQOL:

Health-related quality of life

HUI:

Health utility index

LE:

Life expectancy

HALE:

Health-adjusted life expectancy

CCHS:

Canadian community health survey

NL:

Newfoundland and Labrador

NLCHI:

Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information

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Acknowledgments

We thank Joy Maddigan of the Department of Health and Community Services, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, for kindly providing approval to the use of the Canadian Community Health Survey data file to carry out the analysis for the purpose of this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Research and Evaluation, NL Centre for Health Information, 70 O’Leary Avenue, St. John’s, NL, A1B 2C7, Canada

    Khokan C. Sikdar & Don MacDonald

  2. Division of Community Health and Humanities, Memorial University Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, A1B 3V6, Canada

    Khokan C. Sikdar, Peizhong Peter Wang & Veerabhadra G. Gadag

  3. Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, A1B 3V6, Canada

    Don MacDonald

Authors
  1. Khokan C. Sikdar
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  2. Peizhong Peter Wang
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  4. Veerabhadra G. Gadag
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Correspondence to Khokan C. Sikdar.

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Sikdar, K.C., Wang, P.P., MacDonald, D. et al. Diabetes and its impact on health-related quality of life: a life table analysis. Qual Life Res 19, 781–787 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-010-9641-5

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