Prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus and Associated Factors in Southern Ethiopia: A Community Based Study

BACKGROUND: Like in all populations of the world, recently, diabetes became serious health problem in Ethiopian population, as indicated by few community- and institution-based studies. As high as 6.5% diabetes prevalence was reported in Addis Ababa while 5.1% in urban setting and 2.1% in rural setting of Northwest Ethiopia have been reported. This study aimed to provide additional data on the magnitude of diabetes and associated risk factors. The study aimed to determine the prevalence of diabetes in Bona District and identify contributing risk factors. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A cross-sectional community based survey for diabetes and associated factors was done from February–June, 2016 on a total of 2670 participants in the age range of 15–110 years. Participants were recruited to the study by using a two-stage simple random sampling technique. Data were collected by using structured questionnaire from consented participants. Data were entered, checked for quality and analyzed using SPSS for Windows version 20.0. Since the outcome variable was ordered categorical, we used ordinal regression model to identify associated factors. There was no multicollinearity among the independent variables included in the model. All the independent variables with p<0.25 during bivariate analysis were included in the multivariate model. The level of significance was set at P value < 0.05. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of diabetes (1.9%) from our survey was so high in rural setting that prevention and control mechanisms should be designed. The risk factors include advanced age (β=1.04(0.57–1.50)), systolic hypertension (β=0.59(0.01–1.18)), high waist circumference (β=0.86(0.34–1.39)) and postsecondary education (β=0.87(0.03–1.71)).