Prevalence of lower extremity peripheral arterial disease among diabetic patients and its relationship with quality of life (qol) in primary care: a single centre experience

Introduction: Peripheral Occlusive Arterial Disease (POAD) is an important cardiovascular morbidity especially among diabetics. The goal of the treatment is to improve patients’ quality of life (QoL) starting by quantifying the disease burden in our population especially among high risk group such as diabetics. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study aims to provide a data on the prevalence of POAD among diabetic population in a primary health care in Kuantan and its’ effects on the patient’s QoL. Additionally, we examined for any other stipulated associated factors that may have contributed towards the development of POAD. We applied a universal sampling for the purpose of patient selection. POAD is universally defined as ankle-brachial index (ABI) of lower than 0.9. Individuals were assessed on validated Malay version of WHOQOL BREF to assess their QoL parameters. P value of