Trends on Prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus at Nedjo General Hospital, Western Ethiopia: Cross-Sectional Study

Background and Objective: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is the commonest of all metabolic diseases all over the world. It is estimated that between 5-10% of the population suffer from this disease. Ethiopia is one of the top five countries with the highest number of people affected by DM in sub Saharan Africa (SSA). Hence the study aimed to assess the trend in the prevalence of DM in Nedjo General Hospital (NGH). Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study from patients’ records was reviewed by using structured data extraction tool. Data were obtained from medical records of all registered diabetic patients in the Diabetic Follow up Clinic between 2012 and 2016. A Chi square was used as test of significance at 95% of confidence interval. A P value of 0.05 or less than 0.05 was used as the cut-of level for statistical significance. Result: From the total of 299 diabetic patients, 175 (58.5%) were type-1 DM (T1DM) and 124 (41.5%) were type-2 DM (T2DM). The study revealed that trend of DM was increasing over the consecutive five years of the study period. Majority of the patients were males comprising 64.9% with female to male ratio of 1:1.8. DM was significantly associated with age of the patients (χ2=11.28, P=0.003) at 95% of confidence interval. Hypertension was the most common co morbid recorded in 61 (20.4%) of the total patients. About 169 (96.6%) of T1DM patients who were on insulin and 88 (71.0%) T2DM patients were on oral hypoglycemic agents (OHA). Conclusion and Recommendation: The overall prevalence of diabetes mellitus was steadily increasing in patients who were attending at NGH over last five consecutive years. Adopting a healthy life style, balanced diet, and avoiding other risk factor from their life style is mandatory.