Assessing of Socio-economic components and disease outcomes among Type 2 diabetic patients in teaching hospitals of TUMS, 2010

ABSTRACT

Background: Escalating economic costs due to prevalence of diabetes, particularly in epidemiologic transition era, makes assessing of socio-economic status of diabetic patients as a necessity. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on type 2 diabetic patients with complications in four major teaching hospitals affiliated with TUMS during July 2009 to March 2010. Based on a randomized sampling, 530 patients were interviewed through a questionnaire with 85% response rate [450 patients]. The applied questionnaire composed of 42 questions based on "Yes" or "No", and likert questions. Internal validity of applied tools in this study was 0.89. Data analyzed by SPSS version 11.5. Results: The majority of patients had experienced one or more complications. Findings revealed that [50%] of the patients suffered from one complication, [33.6%] had two complications, and [16.4%] had three complications of type 2 diabetes. Patients with one complication [22.2%] had cardiovascular, participants with two complications [12.7%] had both cardiovascular and eye outcomes, and patients with [cardiovascular, eye and foot ulcer] outcomes were [14%]. Number of complications had significant association with sex, age, education level, type of occupation, duration of diabetes at [p < 0.001], and social class [p=0.002]. Conclusion: It seems that patients with low socio-economic status have more challenges in their social environment with less psychological support. Health care systems are responsible to empower diabetic patients to control the complications of their illness and help them to feel a better life to alive