Physical fitness and health-related quality of life in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus

Type 1 diabetes is one of the commonest chronic diseases in childhood affecting many children worldwide. In the routine care of diabetes, mainly the clinical parameters are controlled and little attention is paid to the physical fitness status and quality of life assessment. Diabetic youths live similar lives to their healthy peers, but little is known about the burden of the disease. It would be important to understand how the disease and the clinical conditions influence on patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and physical fitness. In this work, we culturally adapted the Pediatric Quality of Life inventory 3.0 Diabetes Module and searched the disease-specific factors affecting the patients’ HRQoL. We compared the HRQoL and physical fitness status of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes and compared with non-diabetic age-matched controls. We also evaluated the HRQoL from both the children and the parent’s perspective in diabetic and control groups. Our results are likely interesting for health care experts involved in diabetes management, parents, teachers and anybody who wants to have overall pictures about the type 1 diabetes.