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Wolfson Institute of Population Health

Quality of life decrements associated with adverse events in people with diabetes

Published:
A person uses a fingertip prick test to check their blood glucose levels.

new study based on questionnaires completed by 11683 participants in the ASCEND trial has assessed quality of life associated with a range of adverse events due to diabetes and diabetes treatments. People with diabetes are at elevated risk of adverse cardiovascular, bleeding, cancer, and microvascular events. Using five-level EuroQoL five-dimensional (EQ-5D-5L) questionnaires, researchers estimated quality of life decrements using a linear regression model, following adjustment for participants' socio-demographic and clinical risk factors. Amputation was associated with the largest decrement (-0.206), followed by heart failure (-0.185), intracranial haemorrhage (-0.164), gastrointestinal bleed (-0.091), other major bleed (-0.096), ischaemic stroke (-0.061), transient ischaemic attack (-0.057), and non-gastrointestinal tract cancer (-0.026). The study was unable to detect decrements associated with myocardial infarction, coronary revascularisation, gastrointestinal tract cancer, or end stage renal disease. Senior author Professor Boby Mihaylova of the WIPH Centre for Evaluation and Methods concluded: The estimated decrements in quality of life found in this study could inform assessments of the net value of treatments in patients with diabetes.

 

 

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