Cross Sectional Study to Assess the Prevalence of Peripheral Vascular Disease and Peripheral Neuropathy in Type 2 Diabetic Patients of Rural Area of Tirunelveli

BACKGROUND: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is one of the most prevalent non communicable diseases. According to Diabetes Foundation of India, 50.9 million people suffer from diabetes and the figure is likely to go up to 80 million by 2025 making India, the diabetes capital of the world. Early screening of Peripheral Vascular Disease and Peripheral Neuropathy with improving knowledge about foot care among diabetic patient with or without complication will reduce the prevalence of foot ulcers and henceforth the prevalence of lower extremity amputation. OBJECTIVES: 1. To estimate the prevalence of Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD) and Peripheral Neuropathy (PN) in Type 2 Diabetic patients. 2. To assess the factors influencing occurrence of Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD) and Peripheral Neuropathy (PN) in diabetes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A community based cross sectional study was conducted among 150 type 2 diabetic patients in Tirunelveli district, from July 2017 to August 2018 using a pre tested semi structured questionnaire which had questions related to socio demographic details, factors influencing complication of Diabetes Mellitus, signs and symptoms of Peripheral Vascular Disease and Peripheral Neuropathy and clinical examination. Data were entered in MS Excel and analysed using SPSS version 16. RESULTS: The study revealed that prevalence of Peripheral neuropathy was 40.7% and peripheral vascular disease was 6% among the study population. There was a statistically significant association between age (p <0.0001), education (p <0.002), duration of diabetes (p <0.0001), smoking (p