Hypoglycaemia Fear, Treatment Adherence, and the Quality of Life in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes and Its Determinants

Abstract

Aim: This work aims to evaluate the relationship between the fear of hypoglycaemia,treatment adherence, and the quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM) and its determinants.Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study sample recruited 1060 T2DMoutpatients in a health centre between January and July 2022. The HypoglycemiaFear Survey (HFS), Type 2 DM Treatment Patient Compliance Scale, and the 5-LevelEuroQol 5-Dimension (EQ-5D-5L) were used for data collection.Results: There was a positive correlation between age, duration of T2DM, and thescores obtained from the HFS and its subscales (p < 0.001). There was a positive,moderate correlation between the total HFS score and the TCS (p < 0.001). Therewas a negative correlation between the scores obtained from the HFS and the EQ-5D-5L (p < 0.001). The multiple regression analysis showed that the quality of lifescores of the patients were significantly predicted by hypoglycaemia fear, duration ofT2DM diagnosis, and age. (F = 91.691, p < 0.001). Hypoglycaemia fear, duration ofT2DM diagnosis, and age explained 38.1% of the quality of life of patients.Conclusion: We determined that the increase in hypoglycaemia fear resulted in adecrease in treatment adherence. Besides, hypoglycaemia fear increased withincreasing age and duration of T2DM diagnosis.