RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: Diabetes mellitus is a serious public health problem that causes a decrease in the patients' quality of life. The present study was aimed to analyze the quality of life of patients with diabetes mellitus in Latin-American population through a systematic review, using the two instruments of greater validity and reliability at international level, SF-36 and WHOQOL. METHODS: We performed extensive searches in Redalyc, SciELO, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases. To delimit our search, we only included countries that are members of the Latin American Association of Diabetes. We identified 2168 articles, where 35 were considered relevant for this systematic review. RESULTS: Our results showed that patients that regularly receive guidance and treatment to control the diabetes, showed better quality of life; in contrast, patients with foot ulcers or comorbidities showed the worse quality of life. CONCLUSION: The current literature analysis suggests that this disease greatly influences in the quality of life of the patients.