ABSTRACT
Diabetes mellitus is an endocrine disorder with high prevalence in the Middle East. The effect of this condition has been studied by various researchers indicating a marked effect on the quality of life of patients. To assess the effect of diabetes mellitus on quality of life [QOL]. To identify the domain that shows the greatest impact of diabetes. A cross-sectional study was done from 1st October 2010 to 15th April 2011 at three hospitals [Gulf Medical College Hospital, Sheikh Khalifa Hospital Ajman, and Umm al Quwain Hospital]. Diabetic and non-diabetic individuals were selected from the three hospitals. A standardized self-administered questionnaire [Short Form-36] was used to assess the QOL of the participants in different domains, Physical function [PF], Role of physical limitation due to DM [RP], Bodily pain [BP], General health [GH], Vitality [V], Social functioning [SF], Role of emotional limitation due to DM [RE], Mental health [MH], Physical Component [PCS], and Mental Component [MCS]. A standardized scoring system was used to determine the QOL domains scores for each individual. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 19. Mann Whitney U test was used to test the significance of difference between median score values of the studied diabetic and non-diabetic groups. The study included 180 diabetic and 180 non-diabetic individuals. The median scores for QOL domains PF, RP, BP, GH, V, SF, RE, MH, PCS, and MCS were significantly lower in diabetic group [60, 25, 64, 52, 50, 62, 33, 53, 42, and 41 respectively] compared to non-diabetics [95, 100,74,67,60, 75,100, 64, 53, and 46 respectively]. The greatest difference between median scores of the two groups was noticed in the Role - physical [RP] domain which reflects the extent to which physical capabilities limit activity of the individual and this was followed by the Role - emotional [RE]: the extent to which emotional factors affected work or other activities of the individual. Diabetes mellitus affects the quality of life of patients in all dimensions, physical, mental and social