Prevalence of complications of diabetes among patients with diabetes mellitus attending a tertiary care centre in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Background: Diabetes will be the 7th leading cause of death by the year 2030 as per the World Health Organization. In adults the prevalence of diabetes globally has risen from 4.7% in 1980 to 8.5% in 2014. Level of awareness depends on socioeconomic class, literacy of the patients, training received by them, source of information on diabetes. Knowledge, attitude, and practices about diabetes mellitus and its complications are important to reduce the prevalence and morbidity associated with diabetes mellitus and its complications.Methods: The cross sectional study was conducted among 201 patients with diabetes visiting. Outpatient department of Sree Mookambika Institute of Medical Sciences, Kulasekharam, Tamil Nadu during a period from January 2017 to June 2018 using a pre-tested, semi structured questionnaire.Results: Among 201 patients with diabetes included in the study, 69.0% had one or more of the complications of diabetes. Factors significantly associated with high rate of complications were the female gender (p<0.001), obesity, rural residential area, high blood pressure (p<0.001), familial history of diabetes (p<0.001), duration of the disease above 5 years (p< 0.001) and high HbA1c level (p<0.001).Conclusions: This study revealed that type 2 diabetic patients followed up in the OPD of SMIMS showed a high rate of chronic complications which often occurred in age more than 50 years. Socio-demographic and biological factors were significantly associated with the high rate of complications of diabetes.