J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab 2016; aop *Corresponding author: Andrea Lukács, PhD, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health Care, University of Miskolc, 3515 Miskolc- Egyetemváros, B3-B4 Bld. Miskolc, Hungary, Phone: +36 46 565111/2215 ext., E-mail: lukacs.andrea@ymail.com Péter Sasvári: Faculty of Economics, University of Miskolc, Miskolc-Egyetemváros, Hungary András Török: Velkey László Center for Child Health, Miskolc, Hungary László Barkai: Faculty of Health Care, University of Miskolc, Miskolc- Egyetemváros, Hungary; and Velkey László Center for Child Health, Miskolc, Hungary Andrea Lukács*, Péter Sasvári, András Török and László Barkai Generic and disease-specific quality of life in adolescents with type 1 diabetes: comparison to age-matched healthy peers DOI 10.1515/jpem-2015-0397 Received October 6, 2015; accepted March 29, 2016 Abstract Background: This study aimed to evaluate the health- related quality of life (HRQoL) of adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) on the basis of the pediatric quality of life inventory™ (PedsQL™) generic and diabetes-specific modules, and to compare it to that of healthy peers. Methods: This retrospective case-control study involved 650 participants between ages of 13 and 19 years including 296 adolescents with T1DM from four diabetes centers and 354 healthy peers matched for age and gender from three different cities of the country. Participants completed the validated PedsQL™ for assessing the HRQoL. The analy- sis included an independent t-test to compare the means of the total and subscales of the PedsQL™ between boys and girls as well as between a healthy group and a group with T1DM. Gender differences in exercise, insulin therapy modalities were evaluated with the Pearson χ 2 -test. Results: Adolescents with T1DM have similar HRQoL in all domains when compared to their healthy counterparts. Females report worse HRQoL regardless of the presence of the disease. Insulin pump therapy facilitates better glyce- mic control and HRQoL. Regular exercise positively cor- relates with the generic HRQoL in both groups; however, it has no relationship with glycemic control. Conclusions: Optimal metabolic control and improved HRQoL are the eventual goals of diabetes management. Despite the difficulties, adolescents with diabetes can manage their disease well and live normal lives, similar to their healthy peers. Although diabetes-related problems exist, it seems that regular exercise and staying physically active, as well as promoting insulin pump therapy where it is applicable are related to favorable HRQoL. Keywords: adolescents; health-related quality of life; regular exercise; type 1 diabetes. Introduction Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is a leading chronic disease in the pediatric population and its incidence is continuously rising worldwide [1, 2]. As there is no recov- ery from the disease, overall health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a concern amongst health care experts. The perceived self-assessed health status is considered to be a predictor of mortality and morbidity [3, 4]. Adolescent patients with T1DM are challenged to cope with diverse short- and long-term complications of the disease. They seem to display worse metabolic control compared to other diabetic age groups [5, 6] as well as problems in psychosocial wellbeing [7]. Metabolic control reflects the physiological results of diabetes management whereas the HRQoL outcomes represent the psychological per- spective of the treatment and care. Nowadays, the ulti- mate goals of the diabetes management do not focus only on achieving and maintaining optimal metabolic control which contributes to prevent long-term consequences such as retinopathy, nephropathy and neuropathy but they also put an emphasis on promoting improved HRQoL among patients with T1DM [8, 9]. There are a few studies examining the HRQoL of adolescents with T1DM [10, 11], however, different results were demonstrated in surveys in relation to the healthy population. Some studies showed similar HRQoL to that of the normative samples [12, 13], others observed worse HRQoL in youths with diabetes [14, 15]. Therefore, this study primarily focuses on general HRQoL of patients with T1DM that allows comparison to the healthy population. However, disease-specific tools are more sensitive to symptoms experienced by patients as well as to the implications of Authenticated | sasvari.peter@uni-miskolc.hu Download Date | 5/16/16 12:44 PM