Quality of life of diabetic patients with smear positive PTB in southeastern Iran: A cross-sectional study in a poor region of Iran

Background

The quality of life is an important indicator of quality of care in chronic diseases such as diabetes and TB. The present research is conducted with an aim to assess the Quality of Life of Diabetic Patients with Smear Positive PTB.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 62 diabetic patients with smear positive PTB from January to May 2016 in a diabetes clinic in Zahedan city (southeast of Iran). A simple random sampling method was used in this study. Instrument for data collection was quality of life (SF-36) questioner.

Results

Total quality of life score was 48 that showed an average level of quality of life. Sixty-five patients with diabetes and affected by smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) with the average age of 51.30 ± 10.84 years participated in this research. Four patients (0.06%) suffered from type 1 diabetes and 58 (94%) from type 2 diabetes, and all of them were smear positive PTB patients. Study of their quality of life revealed that, in general, the average scores for quality of life in the two main subgroups of physical health and mental health were lower than the average and, among the eight studied dimensions, the highest scores were those for physical activity (60 ± 14.23) and the lowest (31.42 ± 12.14) for general health in the subgroup of physical health.

Conclusion

Results indicated that the patients had a low quality of life although they received the care and treatments that are effective in patients with diabetes and suffering from smear-positive PTB.