**1. Introduction**

Diabetes mellitus is well recognized as a global public health crisis. It is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by elevated blood glucose levels due to the body's impaired insulin secretion and/or insulin resistance [1]. Persistent diabetes devastates vascular and nerve systems, causing many severe life-threatening complications (e.g., cardiovascular diseases, neuropathy, diabetic foot complications, diabetic retinopathies, or renal failure) and increasing the risk of hospitalization and mortality [2–4]. This disease has now been among the leading causes of disease burden worldwide [5]. According to global estimates, in 2017, over 451 million people were reported to be living with diabetes, with more than 5 million diabetes-related deaths [1].

Like other chronic diseases, diabetes cannot be completely cured [6]. Therefore, ensuring that people living with diabetes have a good quality of life (QOL) and can function adequately has become the ultimate goal of diabetic care [7]. Research increasingly looks to QOL as a favorable outcome of interventions focused on diabetes [2,6]. QOL is a multidimensional concept that does not have a unified definition [8–11]. The World Health Organization defines QOL as "an individual's perceptions of their position in life, in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live, and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards, and concerns" [11]. When two treatments have similar clinical outcomes, measuring QOL can reflect patients' different experiences or perceptions of treatments and symptoms, helping clinicians to identify which intervention's benefits outweigh its drawbacks [12]. In the case of diabetes, evaluating QOL is critically important as its enhancement is associated with good self-care management, including adherence to prescribed medication and suggested lifestyle modifications, which are significant protective factors for diabetes care [2,6,13,14].

A growing body of literature (including trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses) examines the effectiveness of various approaches (from health education to behavioral modification, pharmacotherapy, and surgery [12,15–18]) in enhancing treatment outcomes and QOL among people with diabetes. However, few publications feature updated quantitative data (i.e, bibliometric or scientometric analysis) focusing on interventions aimed at improving QOL in people living with diabetes. Recently, most of the published bibliometric studies have concentrated on diabetes in general [19–21], diabetic complications [22] or comorbidities [23], and the use of specific therapy in diabetes treatment [24]. Looking at these offers a comprehensive picture of the current approaches utilized for improving QOL, the status of international collaboration, and the gap between high- and low-income nations, which is vital in developing a roadmap for a global research agenda that will help optimize diabetes treatment outcomes. The aim of this study is thus to assess the outcomes of recent interventions to improve QOL of people with diabetes.
