Prevalence and impact of peripheral neuropathy on quality of life in patients with diabetes mellitus: pilot study

PURPOSE of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and impact of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) on the quality of life of patients with diabetes mellitus. METHODS: A pilot cross-sectional study of patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T1DM and T2DM) was conducted. Patients were divided into three groups: group 1 = diabetic neuropathy with pain; group 2 = diabetic neuropathy without pain; group 3 = lack of diabetic neuropathy. The quality of life was assessed by SF-36v2. RESULTS: The prevalence of DPN is 43% among the two groups of patients and higher T2DM (50.8%) compared T1DM (25.6%). DPN with pain was 14% among all subjects with DPN, which was again more often in patients with T2DM (17.9%) than in patients with T1DM (5.8%). Patients in group 1 had statistically significant lower QoL compared to group 2 in all 8 dimensions on SF-36. CONCLUSIONS: Diabetic neuropathy without and with pain is a common complication for type 2 diabetes mellitus. This condition can be identified with cheap and easy-to-use screening tools. Despite its profound impact on QoL, painful diabetic neuropathy remains under-studied.