An assessment of self-perceived health status of patients of diabetes mellitus, hypertension and comorbidity using physical functioning

Abstract

Introduction: Perceived health is a subjective assessment of the health and includes so many aspects that are difficult to capture clinically such as incipient disease, disease severity, physiological, psychological reserves and social functions. Aims & Objective: To assess the impact of Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension, comorbidity and other associated factors on the physical functioning of the patients attending the Outpatient department (OPD), Inpatient department (IPD), Rural Health Training Centre (RHTC) and Urban Health Training Centre (UHTC) of Shri Ram Murti Smarak Institute of Medical Sciences (SRMS,IMS), Bareilly. Methods: Perceived health status of the patients was assessed by the Physical Functioning (PF) dimension of the Physical Component Summary using the 36-item short form health survey (SF-36). Results: The presence of both Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertension was associated with lower Physical Functioning scores compared to those with diabetes and hypertension alone (p > 0.05). Age was inversely related with Physical Functioning scores (p<0.05) but male gender (p<0.000) and higher income (p<0.05) were all associated with higher Physical Functioning scores. There was not so much influence of geographical area on the Physical Functioning scores and the association was found to be insignificant (p>0.05). Conclusions: The presence of Comorbidity was found to have greater impact on Physical Functioning compared to individual disease. The impact of various socio-demographic characteristics on the perceived health status was also evident in the study. However, the results were interpreted in terms of the study’s limitations.