Health related quality of life in patient with type 2 diabetes: The role of household food insecurity on latent class membership

Background and aims: Health related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important public health issue that mainly associated with a number of certain factors in medical sciences. This study, in particular, aimed to identify HRQoL latent subgroups among patients with type 2 diabetes and assess the role that household food insecurity (HFI) plays in classifying participants to each latent class. Methods: At the present cross sectional study, all the diabetic patients of the rural regions of Neyshabur (a city in north-east of Iran) were recruited between April and July 2012 (N = 1847). Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used to determine the latent subgroups of HRQoL. Finally, LCA was used to determine the effect of HFI on dedicating participants to each latent class after adjusting other covariates. Results: Based on the subscales of HRQoL, three latent classes were identified, including: 1) poor HRQoL (34.6%), 2) moderate HRQoL (39.1%) and 3) good HRQoL (26.3%). After considering the possible confounders, having HFI decrease the odds of membership in latent class 2 (moderate HRQoL) (OR = 0.42, 95% CI: 0.29–0.60). Also having HFI show similar effect on latent class 3 (good HRQoL) and decrease the odds of membership in this class (OR = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.08–0.20) in compared to the first class (poor HRQoL). Conclusions: Results from the present study show that HFI plays an important role in decreasing the odds of membership in moderate and good HRQoL classes compared to poor HRQoL.