Urban-Rural Differences in the Trends of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes Among Adults Who Received Medical Treatment from Public Hospitals in Resource-Poor Community Tigray, Ethiopia

OBJECTIVE: This study carried out to describe urban-rural differences in the trend of type 1 and type 2 diabetes among adults who have received medical treatment from public hospitals over the last five years. METHODS: The trends of adult diabetes assessed from September 1, 2013, to August 31, 2018, using hospital-based retrospective medical records of 299,806 adult patients in the adult medical outpatient and emergency units. Data were collected using a uniform data abstraction format. An extended Mantel-Haenszel chi-square test of the linear trend used to examine the trend over time. RESULTS: Of the total 299,806 adult patients, 3056 (1.02% (95% CI: 0.98–1.06)) patients were confirmed diabetes patients. The overall trend in the proportion of diabetes had increased from 6.8 to 14.3 per 1000 adult patients. The trend of type 1 diabetes increased for both urban from 1.0 to 2.2 per 1000 adult urban residents and rural from 1.2 to 2.6 per 1000 adult rural residents, with statistically a significant increase (χ(2)= 9.1, P=0.002) and (χ(2)=17.8, P<0.001) for linear trend, respectively. The trend of type 2 diabetes increased for both urban from 6.9 to 14.0 per 1000 adult urban residents and rural from 4.0 to 9.5 per 1000 adult rural residents, with a statistically significant increase (χ(2)=68.4, P<0.001) and (χ(2)=74.2, P<0.001) for linear trend, respectively. The higher increase in the proportion of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes observed among women patients. CONCLUSION: The trend in the proportion of type 1 and type 2 diabetes increasing for both urban and rural residents, with a higher increase observed among women. These findings highlight health-care professionals and policymakers to design effective public health policies to treat each type of disease.