Quality of Life and Associated Factors in Diabetic Patients with Retinopathy

• Main Authors: CHEN, CHING-CHUN, 陳靜純
• Other Authors: KUNG, PEI-TSENG
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/376bpv

碩士 === 亞洲大學 === 健康產業管理學系健康管理組碩士在職專班 === 106 === Research Purposes: According to the statistics from International Diabetes Federation (IDF) in 2017, 425 million people in the world suffered from diabetes, and the figure tends to increase year by year. The incidence of retinopathy complication is more than 1/3, and the domestic prevalence rate is as high as 31.1% in Taiwan. This study explored the quality of life and relevant influencing factors of patients with diabetic retinopathy. Research Method: By purposeful sampling, this study investigated the patients who sought treatment at the ophthalmology clinic of a certain hospital in Central Taiwan from October 2017 to January 2018, and were diagnosed as diabetic patients without other ophthalmic diseases. They were selected as subjects of this study. This study collected data via a SF-36v2 healthy life quality questionnaire and self-defined structured questionnaire, as well as reference to medical records. The minimum number of samples required is calculated to be 242. In addition to descriptive statistics, the statistical analysis methods of t-test and ANOVA were adopted to clarify the differences of the variables on the Physical Component Summary (PCS) of life quality and Mental Component Summary (MCS) of life quality. This study adopted the linear regression model to respectively explore the significant factors affecting the PCS and MCS life quality of patients with diabetic retinopathy. Research Findings: In this study, 148 (56.3%) patients had no diabetic retinopathy, while 115 (43.7%) patients had diabetic retinopathy. With the average age of 62 years, the patients in the 60-69 age group made up the largest share (38.4%); 144 (54.8%) of them were female, while 81% of the patients had other chronic diseases, mostly hypertension. From the perspective of SF-36v2, the score for “social functioning” was the highest (86.45), while the score for “general health” was the lowest (63.76). Relevant factors affecting PCS life quality included gender, age, living status, presence or absence of work, other chronic diseases, vision, and treatment methods of retinopathy. Relevant factors affecting MCS life quality included gender, age, treatment methods of diabetes and severity of retinopathy. Conclusions and Recommendations: In this study, the proportion of diabetic retinopathy is 43.7%, and the average age of all the patients is 62 years old. In the life quality table, the score for “social functioning” is the highest while the score for “general health” is the lowest. In addition to the basic personal characteristics, the most important factor affecting the PCS life quality of patients with diabetic retinopathy is visual acuity, followed by the presence or absence of work; while the most important factor affecting the MCS life quality is the treatment methods of diabetes, followed by the severity of retinopathy. Thus, the recommendations of this study are as the follows: (1) Patients of diabetes, regardless of type 1 or type 2 diabetes, should control their blood glucose within the normal range to delay the development of complications and loss of vision; the patients should be reminded to have their retinas checked every year. It is also recommended to include all diabetes patients in the Diabetes Care Network to facilitate tracking and monitoring of patients’ blood glucose to ensure their health. (2) Medical workers and patients’ family members should encourage patients, especially older patients, to engage in social activities more frequently and increase the opportunities of interaction with others to improve their quality of life.