The associations between different types of diabetes neuropathy symptoms and neuropathy-specific quality of life: Results from the diabetes MILES the Netherlands study.

AIM: To determine the cross-sectional associations between type of diabetes neuropathy (DN) symptoms and self-reported neuropathy-specific quality of life (NS-QoL) in people (N = 1324) with type 1 or 2 diabetes (T1D or T2D), and to assess demographic and clinical determinants of NS-QoL. METHODS: DN-symptoms and NS-QoL were assessed with the Neuropathy and Foot Ulcer-specific Quality of Life measure. Bootstrapped multivariate linear regression analyses were conducted to assess associations of DN-symptoms (pain, reduced sensitivity, diffuse sensory-motor symptoms, multiple types of symptoms or no DN-symptoms) with NS-QoL, adjusting for demographic and clinical variables. RESULTS: In the total group, the multiple symptoms group had the lowest NS-QoL. There were no significant differences in NS-QoL between the pain, reduced sensitivity and diffuse sensory-motor symptoms groups. All symptom groups (besides reduced sensitivity in T2D) reported a significantly lower NS-QoL. Furthermore, in T1D, lower NS-QoL was associated with more complications, higher age, and higher body mass index, while in T2D, it was associated with more complications, higher anxiety, and male sex. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to people without DN symptoms, those with pain, reduced sensitivity, diffuse sensory-motor symptoms or multiple symptoms reported a lower NS-QoL in both T1D and T2D, with the strongest impairment among those reporting multiple symptoms.