Quality of Life Among Adults with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus at a Referral Hospital in Tasikmalaya, Indonesia: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) imposes a burden that extends beyond glycaemic control, affecting physical functioning, emotional wellbeing, social participation and the environmental conditions in which people manage their illness. Facility-based descriptions of the full WHOQOL-BREF domain profile, reported on the WHO-recommended transformed metric, remain scarce for Indonesian adults with T2DM, which limits the ability of health promotion services to identify which dimensions of life are most affected locally. This study aimed to describe the quality of life of adults with T2DM attending a referral hospital in Tasikmalaya, West Java, Indonesia, using the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF). Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at RSUD dr. Soekardjo Tasikmalaya from 23 July to September 2025. One hundred adults with T2DM were recruited by consecutive sampling; eligibility required an age of at least 18 years, pharmacological treatment for at least six months, and the absence of severe complications or cognitive impairment. Data comprised sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, a medication-history questionnaire, a reproductive-history questionnaire administered to women only, and the WHOQOL-BREF. Items 3, 4 and 26 were reverse-scored before domain scoring, and domain scores were transformed to the WHO 0-100 metric. All four domains departed from normality and are summarised as median with interquartile range. Analysis was descriptive; no inferential or association testing was performed. Results: Participants had a mean age of 58.95 years (SD 8.88) and a median illness duration of 4.00 years; 60 (60.0%) were women. The WHOQOL-BREF showed excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.961 overall; 0.862-0.914 across domains). On the transformed 0-100 metric, median domain scores were 56.25 (IQR 46.09-68.75) for environment, 57.14 (IQR 42.86-72.32) for physical health, 58.33 (IQR 41.67-75.00) for social relationships and 62.50 (IQR 45.83-76.04) for psychological health. The four domain medians lay within a 6.25-point range, with environment lowest and psychological health highest. Sixty-two participants (62.0%) rated their overall quality of life as good or very good, whereas 46 (46.0%) were satisfied or very satisfied with their health. Conclusion: Adults with T2DM at this referral hospital had median scores between 56.25 and 62.50 on the 0-100 metric across the four WHOQOL-BREF domains, with the environmental domain scoring lowest and the psychological domain highest. Because the domains scored within a narrow band, health promotion responses should address the domain profile as a whole rather than any single dimension. These descriptive findings identify priorities for testing in appropriately designed analytical studies.