Ponnaian John Christopher1, Brinda2, Shankar Selvaraj3, Benitta Mary Redleene4, Chandrashekar Madhu5
BACKGROUND
As the diabetes prevalence is increasing worldwide, an impending diabetes “pandemic” has been reported. Complications related with diabetes could be prevented by early diagnosis. This study shows the trends in incidence of diabetes among general population and its association with obesity, hypertension, age and sex.
METHODS
The general population who came to Kanyakumari Government Medical College Hospital (KGMCH) were screened for diabetes and the incidence of newly-diagnosed Diabetes Mellitus (DM) were used for examining the impacts of lifestyle, social and anthropometric features and other risk factors. The target population comprised >30 years old from the general population who came to KGMCH. A standard questionnaire was used for collecting information on sex, blood pressure, weight, height and BMI for each participant. Blood samples were collected for determining RBS and those with RBS >200 mg/dL were further evaluated after 8 hours fasting for the measurement of fasting and postprandial glucose levels.
RESULTS
Diabetes was associated with ageing, male sex, overweight and hypertension. The mean age of the population with high incidence of diabetes is 60±10 years. Males are affected with an average of 30.5% and females 25.13%. 58.15% of newly-diagnosed diabetic males and 59.5% of newly-diagnosed diabetic females were overweight. Among newly-screened hypertensive patients 26.56% of males and 27.2% of females have diabetes. This study suggests that diabetes is a common health problem in this population and showed an increasing trend from April 2013 to March 2016.
CONCLUSION
The study suggests that diabetes and factors associated with its occurrence are common health problems in this region. The high prevalence of DM and considerable rate of newly-diagnosed diabetes signifies the importance of the screening programme in this population.
