【Abstract】Objective To explore the current status of fear of disease progression and quality of life in elderly patients with hypertension complicated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods A total of 380 elderly patients with hypertension and T2DM admitted to our hospital from January 2020 to January 2023 were recruited and served as the study subjects. Chinese version of fear of progression questionnaire-short form (FOP-Q-SF) and 36-item short form health survey (SF-36) were used to investigate their status of fear of disease progression and quality of life. SPSS statistics 22.0 was used for data analysis. ANOVA, Student′s t test or Chi-square test was adopted for intergroup comparison depending on data type. Multivariate linear regression model was applied to analyze the influencing factors for fear of disease progression and quality of life, and Pearson correlation analysis was employed to assess the correlation between fear of disease progression and quality of life. Results Among the 380 patients, 366 cases completed our questionnaire survey, with a recovery rate of 96.32%. Their total average score of FOP-Q-SF scale was (32.23±5.74) points. There were 162 cases (44.26%) of psychological function imbalance, and the total average score of SF-36 scale was (445.12±63.79) points. Pearson correlation analysis indicated that FOP-Q-SF score was negatively correlated with physical function, bodily pain, vitality, emotional role, mental health and total score of SF-36 scale (r=-0.463, -0.374, -0.465, -0.388, -0.473, -0.523; P<0.05). Multivariate linear regression analysis found that the duration of hypertension (β=0.136; P=0.029), duration of diabetes mellitus (β=0.094; P=0.008), and coronary heart disease (CHD) (β=0.174; P=0.014) had positive predictive effects on FOP-Q-SF score, while family monthly income (β=-0.184; P=0.012), controlled blood glucose (β=-0.143; P=0.019), controlled blood pressure (β=-0.155; P=0.011) and medication compliance (β=-0.184; P<0.001) had negative predictive effects on FOP-Q-SF score, which jointly explained 40.60% of the variation of the dependent variables. Family monthly income (β=0.176; P<0.001), physical exercise (β=0.135; P=0.007), controlled blood glucose (β=0.236; P<0.001), controlled blood pressure (β=0.116; P<0.001) and medication compliance (β=0.215; P<0.001) showed positive predictive effects on SF-36 score, while CHD (β=-0.165; P<0.001) and cerebral infarction (β=-0.174; P<0.001) had negative predictive effects on SF-36 score, which jointly explained 47.40% of the variation of the dependent variables. Conclusion The fear of disease progression is quite common in elderly patients with hypertension and T2DM, and a considerable proportion of them have psychological imbalance. We suggest to reduce their fear of disease progression and improve the quality of life from the aspects of enhancing medication compliance, urging to develop physical exercise habits, and improving the control effect of blood pressure and blood glucose in clinical practice.
