The prevalence of diabetes among tuberculosis patients in Denmark

SETTING: It is estimated that 25% of the world’s population are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and that 463 million people are living with diabetes mellitus (DM), a number that is increasing. Patients with DM have three times the risk of developing tuberculosis (TB) and there is significant interaction between DM and TB, suggesting that DM affects not only risk of TB but also TB presentation, treatment response and outcome. OBJECTIVE: The aim was determining the prevalence of DM among TB patients in Denmark and to assess risk factors. DESIGN: Patient files from all notified TB cases in Denmark from 2009 to 2014 were retrospectively assessed. RESULTS: In total, 1912 patients were included and 5.0% had DM. Patients with DM were older, had more comorbidities, came from outside Denmark, and had a higher mortality compared to non-DM-patients. None of the patients from Greenland had DM. Patients with low socio-economic status had a low prevalence of DM. We found a higher prevalence of DM among Danish-born < 54 year and migrant ≥ 75 year compared to a Danish background population. CONCLUSION: We found a higher prevalence of DM among TB patients with known risk factors, and a surprisingly low prevalence among patients with low socioeconomic status and patients from Greenland.