Yoseph Cherinet Megerssa, Mistire Wolde Gebre, Samuel Kinde Birru, Ahmed Raja Goshu and Demo Yamane Tesfaye
Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) has significant public health importance and its prevalence is rising. Half of the DM patients are undiagnosed. Undiagnosed DM impose substantial implications because subjects remain untreated and at risk for complications.
Objective: To determine the prevalence of undiagnosed DM and its risk factors in selected institutions at Bishoftu town, East Shoa, Ethiopia.
Materials and methods: Cross-sectional study in selected institutions at Bishoftu town was conducted from December 2012 to February 2013. 422 volunteers proportionally from five institutions were involved. World Health Organization stepwise approach was employed to collect data on demographic, behavioral and physical characteristics. Blood sample after fasting for ≥ 8 hours was collected and serum was assayed for glucose, total cholesterol and triglycerides. Statistical analysis was performed by using STATA (Version 11 USA).
Results: The overall prevalence of undiagnosed DM in the study was 5% [95% CI: 3-7%]. Though not statistically significant undiagnosed DM was higher in males (5.7% vs. 3.7%, P>0.05). Increased occurrence of undiagnosed DM was observed with increasing age but again not statistically significant (P>0.05). Univariate analysis showed undiagnosed DM was significantly associated (P<0.05) with body mass index, waist circumference, alcohol consumption, history of hypertension and high triglyceride level. Predictors for undiagnosed DM in the study were high waist circumference (P=0.001, OR: 7.70 95% CI: 2.31-25.67) and history of hypertension (P=0.009 OR: 3.74 95% CI: 1.39-10.03) after adjusting age, family history of DM, and body mass index.
Conclusion: Higher prevalence of undiagnosed DM than the International Diabetes Federation Atlas projected estimate of DM for Ethiopia was observed in the current study. This calls for the necessity of conducting such studies in wider scale and bring more oblivious patients for medical attention.
