Vitamin D deficiency is associated with poorer satisfaction with diabetes-related treatment and quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: In this cross-sectional study, we assessed the possible association of vitamin D deficiency with self-reported treatment satisfaction and health-related quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: We performed a sub-analysis of a previous study and included a total of 292 type 2 diabetic patients. We evaluated treatment satisfaction and health-related quality of life through specific tools: the Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life. Vitamin D deficiency was defined as 25 (OH) D serum levels < 15 ng/mL. Results: Multivariable linear regression models were used to estimate the relationship of vitamin D deficiency with both outcomes once adjusted for self-reported patient characteristics. Vitamin D deficiency was significantly associated with the final score of the Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire and the single "diabetes-specific quality of life" dimension of the Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life (p = 0.0198 and p = 0.0070, respectively). However, lower concentrations of 25-OH vitamin D were not associated with the overall quality of life score or the perceived frequency of hyperglycaemia and hypoglycaemia. Conclusions: Our study shows the association between vitamin D deficiency and both the self-reported diabetes treatment satisfaction and the diabetes-specific quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes.

This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Health, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) (PS09/01035 and PI15/00625) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). N. A holds a pre-doctoral fellowship from ISCIII, FI11/0008. Centre for Biomedical Research on Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Diseases is an initiative of ISCIII, Spain. The Health Sciences Research Institute Germans Trias i Pujol is part of the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya.