Prevalence of Diabetes among Adults in Agbani South East, Nigeria: A Population Based Study

Abstract

Despite the rising prevalence of diabetes mellitus in Nigeria, population based studies are scarce. This situation is worse in rural areas where the people are typically poor, not very educated and lack good hospitals. We aimed to determine the prevalence of diabetes mellitus among rural dwellers in Agbani, a semi-urban municipality in South East Nigeria. This was a preliminary, observational, cross-sectional investigation in which 400 adults were recruited using the 5 autonomous communities that make up Agbani as clusters. We randomly selected the initial 80 consenting adults from each village. Blood glucose levels were measured using a glucometer. Data obtained were analyzed using SPSS. There were 382 adults studied. There were 170 males and 212 females. The mean age was 59.37 ±15.90 years. Mean Blood Sugar was 135.69±85.94 mg/dl. The prevalence rate for hyperglycemia in this study was 20.14% or 201 persons per 1,000 rural population. There was no statistical difference between the mean blood sugar of males and females and no significant correlation between age and blood sugar.