Patterns of Diabetic Complications at Jimma University Specialized Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Diabetes Mellitus is common metabolic disease worldwide. Its complications in the Ethiopian care setup has not been well documented. The objective of this study was to assess the pattern and distribution of diabetic complications among patients having follow-up at Jimma University specialized Hospital diabetic clinic. METHODS: A cross sectional study based on record review of 305 patients, selected using systematic sampling with replacement was carried out in October 2008. The data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows version 13.0. RESULTS: Larger proportion, 189 (62.0%), of patients had type II diabetes and 163 (53.4%) of them were diabetic for less than 5 years. Seventy three of the 76 (96.1%) patients with type II diabetes mellitus had hypertension. Acute complications were observed in 93 (30.5%) of the patients of which Diabetic Ketoacidosis was documented in 66(71.0%). Forty eight (45.7%) of patients had proteinuria, 90 (29.5%) had peripheral neuropathy, 13(6.8%) had impotence. Diabetic foot ulcer, skin and/or subcutaneous tissue infection, dental problems and tuberculosis were documented in 14(4.5%), 31(10.0%), 31(10.0%), and 17(5.6%) patients, respectively. Any of the chronic complications were not different by sex of the patient but age had statistically significant association with hypertension, visual disturbance and neuropathy (p< 0.05). Type of diabetes had statistically significant association with all the tested complications except infection (P<0.05) where most of the complications occurred in type II diabetics. Statistically significant association was observed between the duration of the diabetes and impotence and visual disturbances (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The majority of patients were type II diabetics. Acute complications were observed more commonly among type I diabetics and DKA was the commonest acute complication. The frequency of chronic complications was high. Increased occurrence of retinopathy, peripheral neuropathy, hypertension and nephropathy was observed with longer duration of illness. Impotence and diabetic nephropathy were more common in type II diabetics. The study showed that age, sex, type of diabetes mellitus and duration of diabetes were significantly associated with the development of diabetic complications.