Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy and its Association with Diabetes Self-care: A Clinic-based Study in an Urban Health Centre, Kolkata

Abstract

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is considered as silent epidemic worldwide including India. Peripheral neuropathy is one of the most common complications of diabetes mellitus. Diabetes Self-Management (DSM) is crucial in mitigating the afflictions of diabetes and it’s after effects. There was dearth of studies in view of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy (DPN) and diabetes self-management in Kolkata, West Bengal. Aim: To assess the associations between diabetes self-management and DPN in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) patients attending an urban health clinic in Kolkata. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted from December 2018 to March 2019 among known case of T2DM patients aged 30 years and above attending the Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) clinic at Chetla, under the purview of field practice areas of Urban Health Unit and Training centre (UHU and TC) of All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIH and PH) Kolkata, West Bengal. A pre-designed and pre-tested schedule was used to collect data which were analysed using International Business Machines Statistical Product and Service Solutions (IBM SPSS) version 16.0 and represented using various tables. Results: The mean (SD) age of the participants was 54.89 (8.98) years. About 32.4% of the patients had DPN which was significantly associated with increased duration of T2DM {AOR (95% CI)}={1.52 (1.22-1.91)}, lower glucose management sub-scale score {AOR (95% CI)}={2.84 (1.42-5.67)} and lower healthcare use sub-scale score {AOR (95% CI)}={1.86 (1.05-3.31)}. Conclusion: Early screening and education regarding diabetes self-care would be helpful in glycaemic control and in prevention of DPN.