Association of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics with body mass index of outpatient diabetic adults attending a tertiary health facility in Enugu, Nigeria

Abstract

Background/objectiveRecently, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics have been emphasized in dealing with chronic diseases of which Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is one. This present study was conducted to correlate the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of out-patient type 2 diabetic adults with their body mass index (BMI). MethodologyThis cross-sectional study was conducted in the Out-patients Diabetic clinic of University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu Nigeria. A total of 370 subjects were purposively selected from the 2888 annual average attendances and examined with questionnaire and anthropometry. Information on their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics was correlated with their body mass index. ResultThe results indicated that there were more (59%) urban diabetics than rural (25.7%) diabetics, many (65.7%) were within the age range of 41–60years, more (64.9%) females than males (35.1%), mainly (86.2%) married and of Christian religion (94.1%) and Igbo ethnicity (95.9%). The majority (91.1%) were of a monogamous family type with 55.4% from average sized (4-6persons) families. More than 1/3 (34.1%) had tertiary education, mainly (43%) civil servants, and 45.1% earning above 137.21 US Dollar per month. Most (69%) of the diabetics were over-weight, a trend of both under-nutrition (1.1%), and over-nutrition (68.7%) with mean BMI value of 27.19 kg/m2 was also observed. BMI had slight negative association with age, sex, and occupation and positive association with religion, ethnicity, marital status and level of education. ConclusionThere is a weak negative association of age, sex and occupation with BMI.