| Author/Editor | Siersma, V.; Urbančič-Rovan, Vilma | |
| Title | Importance of factors determining the low health-related quality of life in people presenting with a diabetic foot ulcer | |
| Type | članek | |
| Vol. and No. | Letnik 30, št. 11 | |
| Publication year | 2013 | |
| Volume | str. 1382-1387 | |
| ISSN | 0742-3071 - Diabetic medicine : a journal of the British Diabetic Association | |
| Language | eng | |
| Abstract | Aim To identify the factors responsible for the low health-related quality of life associated with foot ulcers and therelative importance of these factors. Methods A total of 1232 patients with a new foot ulcer, who presented at one of the 14 centres in 10 Europeancountries participating in the Eurodiale study, were included in this cross-sectional study. Patient and ulcercharacteristics were obtained as well as results from the Euro-Qol-5D questionnaire, a health-related quality of lifeinstrument with five domains (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression). To analysethe relative importance of comorbidities and ulcer- and patient-related factors for health-related quality of life, linearregression models were used to calculate the relative contributions of each factor to the fit (R2) of the model. Results Patients reported poor overall health-related quality of life, with problems primarily in the mobility and pain/discomfortdomains. Amongthecomorbidities,theinabilitytostandorwalkwithouthelpwasthemostimportantdeterminantof decreased health-related quality of life in all five domains. Among ulcer-related factors, ulcer size, limb-threateningischaemia and elevated C-reactive protein concentration also had high importance in all domains. The clinical diagnosis ofinfection, peripheral arterial disease and polyneuropathy were only important in the pain/discomfort domain. Conclusions The factors that determine health-related quality of life are diverse and to an extent not disease-specific. Toimprove health-related quality of life, treatment should not only be focused on ulcer healing but a multifactorialapproach by a specialized multidisciplinary team is also important. | |
| Keywords | health quality of life diabetic foot ulcer |