Microvascular complications and its predictors among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients at Dessie town hospitals, Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus is a serious metabolic disorder which becomes common in middle and low incomes countries since few decades. Microvascular complications include retinopathy, neuropathy and nephropathy all of which can lead to disability, dependency, accelerate their morbidity, and mortality. In Ethiopia, there is paucity data regarding this topic. Hence, this study aimed to assess prevalence of microvascular complications and its predictors among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. METHODS: Cross-sectional study was conducted from February to March 2020 at Dessie town hospitals. We used simple random sampling to recruit study participants and pre-tested interviewer administered questionnaire to collect the data. Data was entered into Epi-Data 3.1 and exported to SPSS-23 for analysis. Binary logistic regression was done to select potential variables to be adjusted at p ≤ 0.25. After running multivariable regression, variables with a p-value ≤ 0.05 were declared as statistically significant. RESULTS: Three hundred and thirty-five type 2 DM patients participated in the study, of which 54.6% were males. One hundred and twenty-seven [37.9% (95% CI 32.5%–43.3%)] of diabetes mellitus had at least one microvascular complications. These were retinopathy 24.8%, nephropathy 16.1%, and neuropathy 8.1%. Age 60–87 years (AOR = 2.76, 95% CI 1.02–7.46), duration of diabetes > 5 years (AOR = 4.09, 95% CI 2.40–6.96), mellitus and co-morbid hypertension (AOR = 3.52, 95% CI 2.09–5.95), were statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, diabetic microvascular complications are prevalent. Increasing the age of participants, longer duration of diabetes mellitus and co-morbid hypertension were independent predictors. Health workers should give emphasis for diabetes mellitus through early screening and health education, abrupt medication for aged patients with long duration of diabetes mellitus, and hypertension, and also early detection and management of microvascular complication.