Model Comparison and Factors Associated with Quality of Life of Type 2 Diabetic Patients: Gender Differentials

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) disease has become public health concern, because of its increasing rate worldwide especially in developing countries. Previous studies have used statistical methods like multiple regression and correlation to show factors associated with Quality of life (QoL) assessed by SF-36 despite the scoring nature of the items. This study aimed at identifying best model and factors associated with gender differentials in QoL among T2DM.

Methods: This cross-sectional study recruited T2DM from Diabetes Care Centre of a teaching hospital, South-western, Nigeria. The models considered were Poisson Model with log link function and square-root link function. The model selection criteria used was Akaike Information Criterion (AIC). The model with the smaller AIC was considered to be better.

Results: The AIC values for Poisson model with log and square-root link functions for Physical Component Summary (PCS) were 1713 and 1708.3, Mental Component Summary (MCS): 1482.2 and 1480.7, QoL: 2359.7 and 235.8 respectively. Age and diastolic blood pressure had significant negative association with PCS, MCS and QoL in both gender (p<0.05), while occupation and education had significant positive association with PCS, MCS and QoL more in male than female. BMI of normal weight had significant reduction in PCS and QoL of female, whereas this had significant increase in the MCS of male.

Conclusion: Poisson model with square-root link function was of better fit to model QoL in T2DM. The significant positive effect of occupation and education on QoL and its domains was more in male than female.