Self-perceived health and self-care among diabetic subjects with defective vision: a comparison between subjects with threat of blindness and blind subjects.

The aim of this study was to compare self-perceived health among diabetic patients who experienced threat of blindness with those who had already gone blind. Another aim was to explore different aspects of self-care in relation to self-perceived health among the subjects. Twenty-one diabetic patients under threat of becoming blind and 23 with diabetes-related blindness agreed to participate in the study. The participants were compared with an age- and gender-matched nondiabetic reference group. Self-perceived health was measured using the 63-item Swedish Health-Related Quality of Life Survey (SWED-QUAL) questionnaire. Data on diabetes-related variables were collected from the patient's hospital records. An interview guide was created for measuring dimensions of self-care. Patients with threat of becoming blind showed better self-perceived health than blind patients, but no differences were found in comparison with the Swedish reference group. Blind patients scored lower in 6 of the 13 health domains and they reported more problems with diabetes self-care than patients with threat of becoming blind. One of the 13 health domains, role limitations due to physical health, seemed to be associated with impaired self-care although only a partial understanding could be demonstrated. The results show that blind patients need specific support to cope well with different self-care situations. A great challenge in future research in diabetes is to implement education programs suitable especially for patients who have gone blind because of diabetes.