Patterns of diabetic complications at Jimma University Specialized Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia

Background: Diabetes Mellitus is common metabolic disease worldwide. Its complications in the Ethiopian care setup has not been well documented. The objective of this study was to assess the pattern and distribution of dia-betic complications among patients having follow-up at Jimma University specialized Hospital diabetic clinic. Methods: A cross sectional study based on record review of 305 patients, selected using systematic sampling with replacement was carried out in October 2008. The data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows version 13.0. Results: Larger proportion, 189 (62.0%), of patients had type II diabetes and 163 (53.4%) of them were diabetic for less than 5 years. Seventy three of the 76 (96.1%) patients with type II diabetes mellitus had hypertension. Acute complications were observed in 93 (30.5%) of the patients of which Diabetic Ketoacidosis was documented in 66(71.0%). Forty eight (45.7%) of patients had proteinuria, 90 (29.5%) had peripheral neuropathy, 13(6.8%) had impotence. Diabetic foot ulcer, skin and/or subcutaneous tissue infection, dental problems and tuberculosis were documented in 14(4.5%), 31(10.0%), 31(10.0%), and 17(5.6%) patients, respectively. Any of the chronic complications were not different by sex of the patient but age had statistically significant association with hypertension, visual distur-bance and neuropathy (p< 0.05). Type of diabetes had statistically significant association with all the tested com-plications except infection (