PREVALENCE OF DIABETES MELLITUS AND ASSOCIATED RISK FACTORS AMONG CIVIL SERVANTS IN EKITI STATE

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic diseases, and continues to increase in numbers and significance, as changing lifestyles lead to reduced physical activity, and increased obesity . Many studies on diabetes and other NCD have been hospital based which is not representative of the general population due to dearth of health care provision. In the same vein the highest percentage of people with undiagnosed diabetes abound in Africa, which is estimated at 81 % . These informed the decision to conduct this population-based study. This research identifies the prevalence of diabetes mellitus and associated risk factors among civil servants in Ekiti state. Randomly selected Civil servants were studied using stratified sampling. Target sample was 300. Data were collected on sociodemographic variables, family history and lifestyles using a structured questionnaire. Measurement of anthropometric variables, blood pressure and random blood glucose was performed. Diabetes was diagnosed when the subject was a known diabetic or random blood glucose was > or = 11.1 mmol/1 . Their random blood sugar was estimated using Roche Accu-chek advantage glucometer. Chi-square and binary logistic regression were used to establish the statistical association between independent and dependent variables and to test the strength of association respectively. Out of 300 subjects seen, 28(9.4%) were previously seen to have diabetes; while 22(7.3%) subjects were diagnosed with diabetes during the study. However 36 subjects were therefore found to have diabetes giving a prevalence rate of 12.0% [95% C.I=0.08-0.16] . The prevalence of diabetes in male respondents was 11.4%[95% C.I =0.06-0.16] while that of the female respondents was 12.9 [95% C.I=0.07-0.18]%, however the difference between the males and females was not significant. The mean random blood sugar was 9.04±1.30. Body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 kg/m2 , family history of diabetes, physical inactivity, alcohol consumption as well as older age were associated with significantly higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in this study is fairly high. BMI, Age and physical activity were seen to greatly influence the prevalence of diabetes mellitus among the civil servants.