Tessema Tsehay Biru
Background: Diabetes Mellitus has become one of the most important public health challenges of the 21st century. The rate of increase in the incidence will be dramatically higher in developing countries and is paralleled by a skyrocketing increase in its chronic complications responsible for the huge premature morbidity and mortality associated with the disease. The development of long-term complications is influenced by hyperglycemia and poor control of diabetes could accelerate their progression.
Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted to determine the adequacy of glycemic control and identify factors associated with poor glycemic control. Three hundred twenty two ambulatory patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus were involved in the study. It was a two phase study where data collection was carried out between May 01 and June 30, 2014. The most recent fasting blood sugar level was used for assessing glycemic control.
Results: Only 12.7% of patients attained adequate glycemic control. Male sex, younger age, low educational status, regular alcohol intake, exercise and dietary non-adherence were observed to be significantly associated with poor glycemic control. Study findings showed that glycemic control was poor, which requires health care professionals to seriously address the issue in order to achieve a better diabetes care.
