Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Aug;18(6):709-18.
doi: 10.1007/s11136-009-9495-x. Epub 2009 Jun 14.

Health-related quality of life and help seeking among American Indians with diabetes and hypertension

Luohua Jiang  1 , Janette Beals, Nancy R Whitesell, Yvette Roubideaux, Spero M Manson; AI-SUPERPFP Team
Collaborators, Affiliations

Health-related quality of life and help seeking among American Indians with diabetes and hypertension

Luohua Jiang et al. Qual Life Res. 2009 Aug.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of American Indians with diabetes, hypertension, or both conditions using the SF36; and to explore how the HRQoL is associated with help seeking among American Indians with and without these chronic conditions.

Methods: We analyzed data obtained from respondents with diabetes and/or hypertension who participated in a large epidemiological study of two culturally distinct American Indian tribes. Comparison data were provided by an age, gender, and tribe matched sample from the same study who did not report either condition.

Results: The respondents with both diabetes and hypertension had the lowest HRQoL on all eight subscales of SF36. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that the assumption of equivalent factor loadings for participants with and without diabetes and/or hypertension was not satisfied. Biomedical service use was significantly associated with the SF36 physical health factor in those with hypertension only. Help seeking from traditional healers was significantly negatively related to physical factor scores for all the respondents except those with diabetes only.

Conclusions: Participants with comorbid diabetes and hypertension had worse HRQoL. The relationships between HRQoL and different types of help seeking varied depending on the comorbidity status of the respondents.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Graphical representation of the final model. βj is the factor loading of confirmatory factor analysis; γi is the estimate of multiple regression of each exogenous variable on latent physical and mental health factors; α is the estimate of direct effect of biomedical service use on Bodily Pain (BP)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lee ET, et al. All-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease mortality in three American Indian populations, aged 45–74 years, 1984–1988. The strong heart study. American Journal of Epidemiology. 1998;147(11):995–1008. - PubMed
    1. Howard BV, et al. Rising tide of cardiovascular disease in American Indians. The strong heart study. Circulation. 1999;99(18):2389–2395. - PubMed
    1. Rhoades DA. Racial misclassification and disparities in cardiovascular disease among American Indians and Alaska Natives. Circulation. 2005;111:1250–1256. doi: 10.1161/01.CIR.0000157735.25005.3F. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Acton KJ, et al. Diabetes prevalence among American Indians and Alaska Natives and the overall population—United States, 1994–2002. MMWR Weekly. 2003;52(30):702–704. - PubMed
    1. Mokdad AH, et al. Diabetes trends among American Indians and Alaska Natives: 1990-1998. Diabetes Care. 2001;24(8):1508–1509. doi: 10.2337/diacare.24.8.1508-a. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources