Comparing Self-Rated Health, Satisfaction and Quality of Life Scores Between Diabetics and Others Living in The Bella Coola Valley

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Angela Grigg ; Harvey V. Thommasen ; Hugh Tildesley and Alex C. Michalos
• 关键词：diabetes mellitus ; quality of life ; rural health ; satisfaction
• 刊名：Social Indicators Research
• 出版年：2006
• 出版时间：April 2006
• 年：2006
• 卷：76
• 期：2
• 页码：263-281
• 全文大小：218 KB
• 刊物类别：Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
• 刊物主题：Social Sciences
  Sociology
  Quality of Life Research
  Microeconomics
  Public Health
  Human Geography
  
• 出版者：Springer Netherlands
• ISSN：1573-0921

文摘

Objective: To investigate the relative effect that diabetes has on self-rated health, satisfaction with various specific domains of life, and satisfaction with quality of life operationalized as happiness, satisfaction with life as a whole, and satisfaction with overall quality of life. Design: Mixed methods – mailed survey and chart review. Study Population: All people aged 17 years or older, residing in the Bella Coola Valley in September 2001 and having a chart at the Bella Coola Medical Clinic. Main outcome measures: Self-rated health, self-rated stress, rating of self-care received, global life satisfaction (Life as whole; Overall standard of living; Overall quality of life; and Overall happiness); and satisfaction with various domains of life. Results: A total of 968 useable surveys were returned for a response rate of 56 (968/1734). Age was negatively related to General Health, but positively related to Life Satisfaction. Not being of Aboriginal descent was positively related to all of the four global health indicators and to Subjective Well-Being. After accounting for age, race, and weight, we found that diabetics report significantly poorer self-rated health, and lower satisfaction with health scores compared to people without diabetes. Participants with diabetes who were the least compliant with their treatment regimens rated their current health significantly lower than those who were the most compliant. People with diabetes were, however, no more likely to be unhappy or dissatisfied with their lives as a whole or with the overall quality of their lives compared to people without diabetes. Among people with diabetes, however, those who used insulin did report significantly less satisfaction with the overall quality of their lives than those who didn’t use insulin. Conclusion: Diabetics understand they have poorer health than others, but they do not have poorer global life satisfaction scores. This may explain why it is difficult to get diabetics to adopt behaviours which may lower their quality of life – e.g., diet plans, lose weight, engage in exercise programs, or take medications.