Prevalence of microvascular complications among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who visited diabetes clinics in Saudi Arabia

OBJECTIVES: To determine the microvascular complications prevalence in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) in the eastern province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. METHODS: The participants in this retrospective, cross-sectional study included patients with type 2 DM who visited the diabetes clinics of primary health care centers of 2 National Guard Hospitals, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. RESULTS: This study included 935 patients with type 2 diabetes (54.1% women versus 45.9% men). Oral hypoglycemic medication was the most common treatment (90.3%). Overall, 55.1% of patients visited the ophthalmology clinic for retinopathy screening. The last glycated hemoglobin A1c result (mean: 8.04%) was higher than the second-to-last result (mean: 8.03%), or the third-to-last result (mean: 7.99%). The prevalence of microvascular complications of DM was 55.1%. Independent significant factors linked with a higher risk of microvascular issues of DM were higher age, visits to an ophthalmology clinic, and the use of injection therapy. The most typical complications that our patients experienced was nephropathy (80.2%), followed by retinopathy (32.7%), and neuropathy (8.4%). CONCLUSION: Microvascular complications were extremely common in type 2 DM patients in our region. Being older, regularly visiting an ophthalmologist, and using injection therapy were predictive factors correlated with a higher chance of experiencing these complications.