THE IMPACT OF SEVERITY, COMORBIDITIES, AND COMPLICATIONS ON QUALITY OF LIFE: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW IN PATIENT WITH DIABETIC RETINOPATHY

Abstract

People with chronic disease and its complication tend to have a decline in quality of life (QoL), as in the case of diabetic retinopathy (DR). DR severity 
varies, while concurrent conditions such as comorbidities and complications are common. However the evidence was concern in effect of those factors 
on QoL is still limited. The aim of this systematic review is to explore QoL in patients with DR by emphasizing on the impact of severity, comorbidity 
and complication, in order to conceive the profundity of the impact of those factors on QoL. Terms and keywords relevant to QoL and DR were 
systematically searched using three electronic databases (PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar). A total of 172 studies were initially obtained and 
screened. Further, after the references were reviewed, 22 studies met all the eligibility criteria were finally selected. The included studies involved 6,457 
patients in DR and conducted from different countries. Diabetic patients with DR had lower QoL compared to those without DR. Due to increasing 
number of comorbidity, complication and DR severity, QoL among patients were decreased. Our study showed that increasing number of comorbidity, 
complication, and severity were associated with poor QoL.  Several medical interventions could improve the QoL. This study provides new evidence 
of factors related to QoL for clinicians and policy makers, hence intervention was needed accordingly to prevent occurrence and worsening the progress 
on those factors in patient with DR.