Multi‐country retrospective observational study of the management and outcomes of patients with Type 2 diabetes during Ramadan in 2010 (CREED)

AIM: To describe the characteristics and management of patients with diabetes who chose to fast during Ramadan in 2010. METHODS: This was a multi‐country, retrospective, observational study, supplemented with physician and patient questionnaires, with data captured before, during and after Ramadan. A total of 508 physicians in 13 countries enrolled 3777 patients and a total of 3394 evaluable cases were analysed. We report on the subset of patients with Type 2 diabetes, which included 3250 patients (95.8%). RESULTS: Oral anti‐hyperglycaemic therapy was the predominant pre‐Ramadan therapy for most patients (76.6%). The treatment regimen was modified before Ramadan for 39.3% of all patients (34.9% for patients on oral drugs alone, 47.1% for patients on injectable drugs alone). Almost all physicians (96.2%) reported providing fasting‐specific advice to patients and 62.6% report using guidelines or recommendations for the management of diabetes during Ramadan. In all, 64% of patients reported fasting everyday of Ramadan and 94.2% fasted for at least 15 days. CONCLUSIONS: Physicians have increasingly adopted multiple approaches to the management of fasting during Ramadan, including the adoption of international and/or national guidelines, providing fasting‐specific advice and adjusting treatment regimens, such that patients are able to fast for a greater number of days without acute complications. Additional research is needed to explore physician and patient beliefs and practices to inform the evidence‐based management of diabetes while fasting, both during and outside of Ramadan, and to identify and address barriers to the universal uptake of techniques to facilitate that management.