Prevalence and association of chronic musculoskeletal pain on self-management, glycemic control and quality of life among Chinese type 2 diabetes patients in primary care

• Published in: Primary care diabetes 2022-08, Vol.16 (4), p.525-530
• Main Authors: Sit, Regina WS, Wang, Bo, Ng, Wing-Sze, Abdullah, Adina, Ismail, Irmi Zarina, Goh, Lay-Hoon, Wong, Samuel YS
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chronic musculoskeletal pain; Depression; Diabetes self-management; Glycemic control; Health-related quality of life
• ISSN: 1751-9918; 1878-0210
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pcd.2022.04.004

To examine the prevalence of chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) pain and its association with diabetes self-management, glycemic control and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) in primary care. 329 patients with type 2 DM were recruited at public primary care clinics in Hong Kong. Chronic MSK pain was defined as having MSK pain ≥ 3 months, and the pain severity was measured by Brief Pain Inventory (BPI). Diabetes Management Self-Efficacy Scale (DMSES), hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and EuroQuol-5D (EQ5D) were collected. Multivariable regression was used to examine the association between the presence of chronic MSK pain with DMSES, HbA1c and EQ5D, adjusted for baseline confounders such as age, sex, BMI, duration of DM and comorbid depression. Approximately 49.5% of respondents reported chronic MSK pain with a median BPI severity score of 3.5 (2.0–5.0). The presence of chronic MSK pain was associated with lower HRQoL (β = −0.053, 95% CI −0.087 to −0.018, P = 0.003), but was not associated with the diabetes self-management and glycemic control. Depression was associated with poorer diabetes self-management (β = −2.776, 95% CI −4.247 to −1.304, P