Prevalence and factors associated with latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA): a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA) is a slowly progressive Type 1 diabetes subgroup with onset during middle age. Studies report that about 10% of adults initially diagnosed with clinical Type 2 diabetes (T2D) have LADA. Inappropriate diagnosis and mismanagement of the LADA can increase the risk of diabetic complications, which affect the quality of life and is the cause of increased mortality. In low-income countries setting, data regarding the magnitude of LADA is limited. We carried out this study to estimate the burden of misdiagnosed LADA among T2D patients in selected health facilities in Dar es Salaam and to bring awareness to the use of Glutamic Acid Decarboxylase (GAD) autoantibody in screening for LADA. METHODOLOGY: We enrolled 186 phenotypically T2D patients in this cross-sectional study, through a standardized data collection tool we obtained participants’ demographic and clinical information. For testing GAD levels, we used a double-antibody Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). The Fisher’s Exact and student t-tests were used to test the significance of the statistical associations of the glycaemic control and diabetes complications between T2D and LADA. RESULTS: Out of 186 patients, 156 gave conclusive GAD Ab ELISA reading with LADA accounting for 5.1% (95% CI: 2.5 - 10.0). The mean age of subjects was 54.3 years (Range: 33-85 years). The parameters such as mean age, family history of diabetes mellitus status, Fasting Blood Glucose, clinical characteristics, and complications did not show significant statistical differences between patients with LADA and Type 2 diabetes. However, all LADA- Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) comorbid patients had retinopathy, which was statistically insignificant in 20 (87%) T2D-HIV comorbid patients (p = 0.669). Neither neuropathy, nephropathy, nor Diabetic Mellitus (D.M.) foot syndrome was observed among LADA-HIV comorbid patients. Nevertheless, 22 (95.7%), 3 (13%), and 2 (8.7%) of T2D-HIV comorbidity had neuropathy, nephropathy, or D.M. foot syndrome, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The study established a LADA prevalence of 5.1% among T2D patients and has shown the role of GAD autoantibody in the screening for LADA. The study calls for a well- designed larger longitudinal study to generate strong evidence on the association of risk factors and complications associated with the LADA. This will develop robust evidence on the association of risk factors and complications associated with the LADA and T2D. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12902-022-01089-1.