Title:Evaluation of General Health Status in Diabetic Patients Using Short
Form Health Survey (SF-36)
Volume: 19
Issue: 9
Author(s): Ali Shlash Al-Ibrahimy and Ihsan Salah Rabea*
Affiliation:
- Clinical Pharmacy Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Kufa, Najaf Governorate, Iraq
Keywords:
Diabetes mellitus, general health, SF-36, cross-sectional study, factors associated, health survey.
Abstract:
Objectives: The aim of this study is to assess the general health of diabetic type 2 patients
by using SF-36 and also to find if there was an association between the scores of eight domains
of this tool with disease-specific and demographic variables.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the general health of patients with diabetes
mellitus type 2. The participants of the present study were randomly selected from rural and
urban areas. The diabetic patients visiting community pharmacies in these areas were invited to participate
in this study after explaining the goal of the study. A self-reported questionnaire in the Arabic
version of the medical outcome survey, the Short-Form (36-item), was conducted. However, uneducated
patients were interviewed by trained pharmacists in the community pharmacies.
Results and Discussion: Two hundred confirmed DM patients were enrolled in this study with a
mean age of (50.65 ± 8.914 years). 142 (71%) were male and the remaining 58 (29%) were female.
The scores of all domains of SF-36 were significantly lower (p < 0.05) in female patients in comparison
to that recorded in men. In addition, diabetic patients aged more than 50 years showed significantly
lower scores of most domains of SF-36 (p < 0.05) except for emotional well-being (p >
0.05). The multivariate linear regression analysis demonstrated that gender, age, and treatment type
were independent of health status based on the SF-36 survey, while emotional well-being, social
functioning, and pain were exceptional.
Conclusion: The outcomes of this study showed a negative correlation between diabetes mellitus
and the health status as measured by SF-36. Furthermore, excluding emotional well-being, social
functioning, and pain domains, the other parameters of gender, age, and treatment type showed a
significant correlation with health status.
