Prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus among Urban Sikh Population of Amritsar

CONTEXT: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) refers to a group of common metabolic disorders that share the phenotype of Hyperglycemia. More than 60% of the world's population with diabetes comes from Asia. AIM: To study the prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus among Sikh individuals living in the urban localities of Amritsar. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: The study was designed in the Faculty of Sports Medicine & Physiotherapy, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Punjab, India. The data collection was carried out in various urban localities of Amritsar. Blood samples were analyzed in the Biochemistry laboratory, whereas data analysis and article preparation was carried out in the Faculty of Sports Medicine and Physiotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Multi-stage random sampling was done with a sample size of 1089 patients. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The data was analyzed in Stata 11.2 software. Various tests used in the study are Mean ± SD, Pearson Chi Square Test, Students’ t test and multiple logistic regression test. RESULTS: Our study showed that the prevalence rate of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus is 23.2% with the confidence interval of 20.7–25.7. Proportionately more patients with T2DM had hypertension (46.6%). Likewise proportionately more patients, 67.5% had hypertrigylerdemia, 67.6% had low HDL levels, 59.2 % had hypercholesterolemia and 73.1% suffered from metabolic syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: Our study clearly indicates that the young Sikh adults below 40 years of age have similar high BMI, WC and WHR to that of the older adults above 40 years of age. It is necessary to adopt appropriate preventive strategies and interventions in high-risk individuals to curb the growing epidemic of diabetes. Innovative community outreach programs need to be designed and implemented to create awareness and early screening and treatment of diabetes, especially in the urban population.