Assessment of diabetes risk in an adult population using Indian diabetic risk score in urban area of Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Background: India has earned the dubious distinction of being the diabetic capital of the world. The majority of people with diabetes (>90%) have Type 2 diabetes (T2DM). While T2DM predominantly affects older individuals in developed countries, in developing nations like India, it affects the younger population in the prime of their working lives and thus poses an even greater threat to the health of these individuals. Objectives of the study were to assess the Type 2 diabetes mellitus risk status of adult population in urban area of Tamil Nadu and to measure the association between sociodemographic factors like age, sex and socio economic status with diabetes risk score.Methods: A community-based, cross-sectional study was carried out in Anakaputhur, an urban area in Kanchipuram district of Tamil Nadu in June 2016 among adult population on risk status for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Using Indian Diabetic Risk Score. The data was entered in MS Excel & analyzed by SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) 20.0 version. Descriptive statistics like proportions were calculated. Chi square test was used to compare the proportions between the groups. P value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.Results: Out of 351 study subjects, only 30 (8.5%)study subjects were not at risk of having diabetes, 119 (33.9%) were at moderate risk and 202 (57.6%) were at higher risk of having Diabetes. Comparing age, gender, socio-economic status with diabetes risk category, we found that age is associated with diabetes risk category and the p – value was highly significant.Conclusions: Majority of the study subjects were at risk of having diabetes, hence screening is of utmost importance so that interventions can be initiated at an early stage.