Prevalence of Obesity Among Diabetic Patients in Sabahia Area in Kuwait
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- Category: Vol. 77, June 2009
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Prevalence of Obesity Among Diabetic Patients in Sabahia Area in Kuwait,FAHAD AL-AZEMI, HANY M. AYASH and TALAL AL-AZEMI
Abstract
Background and Objective: There is well known strong association between type 2 diabetes and obesity. Also obesity represent a major health problem worldwide and specially in Kuwait and gained a great interest in recent years from the different health authorities. The aim of this study was to find out the prevalence of obesity among patients with Diabetes Mellitus attending the primary health care center in El-Sabahia area.
Patients and Methods: Five hundred adult patient known to be diabetic either on oral hypoglycemic drugs or on Insulin therapy or both were included in the study. They were subjected to the following: Full history taking, full general and local examination of the heart, chest and abdomen, anthropometric measurements: Height, weight and waist and hip circumfer-ences and Laboratory investigations including: Fasting and 2 hours post-prandial blood glucose (FBS) measurement, an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), blood pressure measure-ment, blood lipids tests and completing a questionnaire on socio-demographic and smoking information. Patients were calssified according to the BMI as (underweight when BMI <18.5kg/m2, normal weight when BMI >!18.5 to 24.9kg/m2, overweight when BMI >!25.0 to 29.9kg/m2, class I obesity when BMI = 30.0 to 34.9kg/m2, class II obesity when BMI =35.0 to 39.9 kg/m2, class III or morbid obesity when BMI >!40kg/m2. Waist circumference and Waist hip ratio were calculated.
Results: Results of the current study regarding the degree of obesity as determined by the body mass index was; 18 patients (3.6%) have normal weight, 54 patients (10.8%) were overweight, 137 patients (27.4%) had class I obesity, 169 patients (33.8%) had class II obesity and 122 patients (24.4%) had morbid obesity. The overall prevalence of obesity in our study population was 85.6%. The mean WHR was significantly higher among males than females (p<0.05) and the prevalence of central obesity among males was more than that in females. Also the mean WHR increased with advanced age but it showed non-significant decrease in the age group >65 years.
Conclusion: The prevalence of obesity among patients with Diabetes Mellitus in Sabahia Kuwait is very high and even higher than most studies. The Waist Hip ratio was found to be also significantly high among diabetic patients. Both sexes had a very high prevalence of obesity and males tended to be more obese than females. These alarming results neces-sitate rapid intervention for control of obesity especially
among Kuwaiti diabetic patients in order to decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease and toward better control of diabetes.