Discussion
DM, pain, diabetes
DIABETES
The baseline findings on HRQOL revealed that a good number of the study participants scored above 50 in most domains of QOL at the pretest except in role limitation due to physical health in which more than half of all participants scored below 50. This finding concurs with a previous finding which reported QOL scores of more than 50 in most domains of the SF – 36 measurements [A significant difference was also observed in the overall mean QOL score of the intervention and control groups at the pretest stage, the control group had a higher overall mean QOL score than the intervention group. This further showed that the control group participants had a better QOL than the intervention group before the intervention.However, 6 months after educational intervention, the mean QOL scores of the experimental group increased significantly in all the domains of QOL. Also, the overall mean QOL score of the intervention group increased significantly by 5.87 points after the intervention. This implies a positive effect of the intervention on the experimental group as shown in the HRQoL scores. This underscores the fact that educational intervention for people living with diabetes will be helpful in the non-medical management of DM. The outcome of the study runs counter to the study hypothesis that stated that an educational intervention program on the HRQOL of individuals with type 2 DM recruited from selected tertiary institutions in South East, Nigeria will not lead to an improvement in their HRQOL. This finding is similar to the findings of the previous finding in Saudi Arabia which revealed statistically significant improvement in four dimensions of HRQOL after their psychoeducational intervention (P < 0.01) [Age was inversely correlated with the domains of physical functioning, role physical, energy/fatigue, and pain. This implies that as age increases, QOL decreases in these domains. Several studies found that quality of life (QOL) in their study population worsens with increasing age [A significant difference was observed in the physical components (PCS) and mental components (MCS) QOL mean score after the intervention; the PCS increased significantly by 9.12points higher than the pretest mean, while the MCS increased by 6.3, thus indicating the effectiveness of the intervention on the PCS and MCS components of HRQOL. A similar study observed similar findings of an increase in QOL scores in PCS and MCS of their participants after 6 months of intervention (P < 0.05) [