Diabetes and Its Associated Factors among Oil and Gas Company Workers in Port Harcourt

Abstract

The global burden of diabetes is becoming alarming; this has been aggravated by the change in lifestyle patterns which has encouraged the high prevalence of diabetes noticed today. The oil and gas company workers over the years have been predicted to have an increased prevalence of diabetes which has been attributed to the affluence of this population. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of diabetes and its associated factors among oil and gas company workers in Port Harcourt. The present study aim was to determine the prevalence of diabetes and its associated factors among oil and gas company workers in Port Harcourt. The study was carried out using a descriptive cross-sectional study and data’s were collected using a questionnaire. A total of 376 questionnaires were administered and 318 questionnaires were retrieved from three oil and gas companies in Port Harcourt. Majority (51.9%) of the workers were above 40years of age. (72.01%) were married and Christianity (94.03%) was the main form of religion as recorded in the study. The study revealed that (56.1%) of the workers have poor dietary habit as against (43.9%) that have good dietary habit. The mean BMI of the workers (26.5) shows that majority (40.9%) of the workers are overweight, which depicts the nutritional status of the workers. The overall prevalence of diabetes in this study is (19.8%) and of all the risk factors predicted to be associated with the occurrence of diabetes, only women who have given birth to babies weighing more than 4kg at birth showed an association with an adjusted odd ratio of 4.79(1.34-17.11) 0.016. Therefore, there is a significant association between women who have given birth to babies weighing more than 4kg at birth and the occurrence of diabetes. Management of the oil companies, through the health education department should encourage exercise and diabetes management education to curtail the growing prevalence of diabetes.