Background

Every year the burden of diabetes continues to rise with approximately 415 million diagnosed cases
worldwide.Sedentary lifestyle, family history, obesity are some of the contributory factors for development of
diabetes. The estimated prevalence of diabetes worldwide is 8.5%¹ . Nepal is a culturally rich, land locked
country. It is also one of the 6 countries of the IDF SEA region. According to the data provided by the IDF there
were 5,26,000 cases of diabetes in 2015. Various studies have shown increasing prevalence of diabetes in Nepal ². New
cases of type 2 diabetes can remain undiagnosed for several years as 50% of patients are asymptomatic.

Aim

The goal of our study was to assess the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in previously undiagnosed cases through
screening camps across Nepal.
Method
We conducted a cross sectional, prospective study to examine the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in previously
undiagnosed cases. 1515 subjects ( 575 male and 938 female) from various socioeconomic backgrounds were
tested with spot random blood sugar by glucometer. Values greater than 140 mg/dl in individuals with no prior
history of diabetes were advised for either fasting blood sugar, post prandial blood sugar or HbA1C.
Demographic, anthropometric , educational and social details were recorded using a proforma. Patients with
history of type 2 diabetes were excluded from this study.

Results

In our study prevalence of diabetes and pre diabetes were 7.36% and 8.63 % respectively. Higher proportion of
males had diabetes compared to female ( 21.6% vs 16.2%) which was statistically significant (p value <0.05).
Higher proportion of smokers had diabetes compared to that of non smoker (25.2% vs 18.8%) which was not
statistically significant .Hypertension was observed in 25.1% of the newly detected diabetic cases compared to
18.6% in non diabetic cases. Dyslipidemia was observed in 23.9% of individuals with diabetes. In the newly
diagnosed diabetic and pre-diabetic patients 20.8% had a positive family history of diabetes compared to 17.7%
in the non diabetic population.

Conclusion : Type 2 diabetes is a health burden that continues to rise in Nepal. Sedentary and urban lifestyle fueled by consumption of junk food, lack of physical exercise and obesity are some of the contributing risk factors. Prevention , detection and timely management of diabetes can help minimize the long term complications associated with diabetes.

Diabetes screening and prevalence in previously undiagnosed cases in Nepal