Spatio-temporal analysis of diabetes in the Iranian military community during the period 2015-2018

Abstract

"Introduction: diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most prevalent non-communicable diseases. Spatio-temporal study of DM has a main in the design of disease prevention programs. The present study aimed to describe the spatio-temporal distribution of diabetic patients in the Iranian military community. Methods: In this ecological study, all registered cases of DM in the Iranian military community (military officers and enrolled conscripts) were considered during the period 2015-2019. Getis-Ord Gi statistics was applied to identify the DM hotspots. Spearman Correlation Coefficient was used to perform trend analysis of the disease. Results: The number of DM incident cases in the military officers and enrolled conscripts was 1135 and 85, respectively. Isfahan (n=153) and Tehran (n=67) for the military officers and Zanjan (n=17) and Kurdistan (n=10) for the enrolled conscripts were the provinces with the highest number of identified DM cases. In the study period, no significant hotspots were detected in the military officers; However, an increasing trend of DM was observed (CC= 0.935, p 0.001). The DM hotspots detected in enrolled conscripts were as follows: 2015 – Qom (95% CI); 2016 – Lorestan, Qazvin, and Guilan (90% CI); 2017 – Ilam, Hamadan, and Markazi (90% CI); and 2018 – Ilam (95% CI), Alborz, Qom, Markazi, Lorestan, Kermanshah (90% CI), and no significant trend was noticed nonetheless (CC=-0.160, p=0.555). Conclusion: It appeared that Northern and North-Western Iran were high-risk areas for DM in the military population and should be considered in designing the diabetes prevention and control program. Moreover, the determination of DM risk factors in the aforementioned areas could play a crucial role in the prevention of the disease. "