Higher levels of bodily pain in people with long-term type 1 diabetes: associations with quality of life, depressive symptoms, fatigue and glycaemic control - the Dialong study.

AIMS: To compare reported level of bodily pain, overall and health-related quality of life (QoL), depression and fatigue in people with long-term type 1 diabetes vs. a comparison group without diabetes. Further, to examine the associations of total bodily pain with QoL, depression, fatigue and glycaemic control in the diabetes group.

METHODS: Cross-sectional study of 104 (76% of eligible) people with type 1 diabetes of ≥ 45 years' duration attending the Norwegian Diabetes Centre and 75 persons without diabetes who completed questionnaires measuring bodily pain (RAND-36 bodily pain domain), shoulder pain (Shoulder Pain and Disability Index), hand pain (Australian/Canadian Osteoarthritis Hand Index), overall QoL (World Health Organization Quality of Life - BREF), health-related QoL (RAND-36), diabetes-specific QoL (Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life; only diabetes group), depression (Patient Health Questionnaire) and fatigue (Fatigue questionnaire). For people with type 1 diabetes, possible associations between the bodily pain domain (lower scores indicate higher levels of bodily pain) and other questionnaire scores, were measured with regression coefficients (B) per 10-unit increase in bodily pain score from linear regression.

RESULTS: The diabetes group reported higher levels of bodily (P = 0.003), shoulder and hand pain (P < 0.001) than the comparison group. In the diabetes group, bodily pain was associated with lower overall and diabetes-specific QoL [B (95% confidence intervals)]: 0.2 (0.1, 0.2) and 0.2 (0.1, 0.3); higher levels of depression -1.0 (-1.3, -0.7) and total fatigue -1.5 (-1.9, -1.2); and worse glycaemic control HbA1c (mmol/mol; %) -0.8 (-1.5, -0.1); -0.1 (-0.1, -0.01).

CONCLUSIONS: People with long-term type 1 diabetes experience a high level of bodily pain compared with a comparison group. Total bodily pain was associated with worse QoL and glycaemic control.