Epidemiological Characteristics of Diabetes in Patients Referring to the Diabetes Clinic in Bu-Ali Hospital, Zahedan, Iran

Diabetes is a disease in which blood sugar level is high due to hormonal disturbances. Monitoring and evaluation certainly helps to prevent, manage and control this widespread disease. The aim of this study was to study the epidemiology of diabetes in the Diabetes Clinic in Bu-Ali Hospital, Zahedan in South East Iran.

This was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study conducted in 2020 including all the 1164 patients referring to the Diabetes Clinic in Bu-Ali Hospital.  Data were collected using a standard check list and analyzed using the Stata-v14 software.

Information on 1164 patients with diabetes was recorded and analyzed. Most (97.7%) of the patients had type-2 diabetes. The average fasting blood sugar in patients with type-1 and type-2 diabetesd was 236 and 201 mg/dL respectively, the corresponding A1C levels being abnormally high ─ 9.6% and 8.4%. Fasting blood sugar was associated with diabetic foot complications and nephropathy (p<0.05).

Based on the findings of this study the level of care of diabetic patients in terms of quantity and quality is not quite acceptable, not conforming to the respective national standards. This issue indicates the unfavorable performance of the Diabetes Center, which can be attributed to the poor conditions of the geographic region, insufficient equipment and specialized manpower and low health literacy of the people. Therefore, increasing the awareness of overweight and obese people, especially those with a family history of diabetes, about prevention can help to reduce the incidence of the disease or minimize its complications.