Prevalence and risk factors of chronic complications among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Morocco: a cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION: microvascular and macrovascular complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide among patients with T2DM. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of these chronic complications and identify the associated risk factors among Moroccan patients with T2DM. METHODS: this cross-sectional study was conducted on 505 T2DM patients followed by the healthcare Centers of the Casablanca-Settat region from January 2017 to July 2018. The socio-demographic, anthropometric, biochemical, and clinical data were recorded using a structured survey. For statistical analysis, SPSS version 20 is used. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses are used to determine the risk factors associated with chronic complications of T2DM. RESULTS: among the 505 Moroccan patients with T2DM, 84.98% were women. The average age of the patients was 57.27±10.74 years. Diabetic eye disease was the most frequent complication (29.5%) followed by cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) (22.4%), kidney disease in diabetes (9.8%), diabetes foot (2.8%), and neuropathy (1.8%). Logistic regression analysis showed that the CVDs was associated with hypertension (OR: 2.41; 95% CI: 1.11-5.22; p=0.026), hypolipidemia treatment (OR: 2.20; 95% CI: 1.06-4.59; p=0.034), insulin use (OR= 0.39; 95%CI: 0.15-0.96, p=0.043) and LDL-C (OR: 1.01; 95% CI: 1-1.02; p=0.035) in T2DM patients. However, the major risk factors for the development of kidney disease in T2DM patients were a lack of regular physical activity (OR: 3.77; 95% CI: 1.22–11.67; p=0.021), hypolipidemia treatment (OR: 8.31; 95% CI: 1.86–36.97; p=0.005), and high serum creatinine (OR: 1.33; 95% CI: 1.16-1.53; p≤0.001). In addition, LDL-C levels were found to be a significant risk factor for diabetes eye disease (OR: 1.01; 95% CI: 1.00-1.03; p=0.008). CONCLUSION: this study shows that the increased duration of diabetes, insulin use, lack of regular physical exercise, hypertension, hypolipidemia treatment, high serum creatinine, and LDL-C were significant risk factors for chronic complications of T2DM in Moroccan patients.