Comparison of Quality of Life and Coping Strategies in Diabetic and Non Diabetic People

Introduction: Diabetic patients face with different physical and psychological challenging factors which impress their quality of life. The major problem of these patients, which has made their life circumstances more complicated, is coping and adapting styles with the illness. So, this study aimed to determine quality of life and also different kinds of coping strategies in patients with type 2 diabetes and also to compare it with those of healthy people. Methods: In this study, sixty diabetic patients (30 male, 30 female), were chosen by available sampling method from the people who referred to Sina Diabetes center in Tabriz and were compared with sixty non diabetic people (30 male, 30 female). Data were collected by two questionnaires including the short form health survey (SF-36) and coping style Inventories. MANOVA method was used to analyze the research data. Results: The study results showed that non diabetics were significantly higher than diabetic patients in regard to quality of life and its dimensions (p<0.001). Also results revealed that non diabetic people used the problem–oriented styles (p<0.001), however diabetic patients used emotional-oriented coping and avoidance strategies more (p<0.05). In this study (in both groups), females in comparison with males had lower score in quality of life and used more emotion-oriented coping styles and less problem-oriented styles. Conclusion: The results indicated that individuals’ quality of life was affected by their coping style with different affairs. Emotional-oriented coping and avoidance strategies were related with decrease of quality of life in diabetic patients whereas problem-oriented styles enhanced it. Therefore, it is necessary to perform interventions for teaching problem solving coping in order to improve these patients' quality of life.