Quality of Life in Type 2 Diabetic Patients With and Without Proliferative Retinopathy and Macular Edema

Diabetic retinopathy is the most common diabetic eye disease and a leading cause of blindness in adults. In India diabetes is an epidemic, so the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy is also increasing. The main objective of the study is to compare both health related and vision targeted quality of life of type 2 diabetic patients with and without proliferative diabetic retinopathy or diabetic macular edema. A prospective, observational study was conducted in a tertiary care referral hospital at Kerala, India, over a period of 7 months. Patients age between 33-76 years, suffering from type 2 diabetes mellitus either with or without proliferative diabetic retinopathy or diabetic macular edema were interviewed using EQ 5D 5L questionnaire and national eye institute visual function questionnaire to assess their quality of life. Out of 189 type 2 diabetic patients included in the study, 94 were with Proliferative diabetic retinopathy or diabetic macular edema and remaining 95 were without PDR or DME. Presence of PDR or DME does not affect health related quality of life (p>0.05). Severity of retinopathy significantly reduces health related QoL (p=0.004). Presence of PDR or DME reduces vision related QoL significantly (p=0.000). Vision related QoL is also affected by severity of retinopathy (p=0.000). There was statistically significant correlation between duration of diabetes and severity of retinopathy (p=0.018). Both HRQoL and vision related QoL were positively correlated (p=0.001).