Association between socio-demographic factors and diabetes mellitus in the north of Iran: A population-based study

Objective: This study considers the prevalence of DM and some related factors among adults in the Golestan province (north of Iran) in 2006. Methods: This is a Cross-sectional-Descriptive and population-based study, carried out among 1999 cases (1000 men and 999 women) between 25 and 65 years old. Participants were chosen by cluster and stratified sampling in urban and rural areas. Data on socio-demographic factors were collected using questionnaire, and anthropometric and biochemical indexes were measured. Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS) equal to or over 126 mg/dl was classified as type 2 DM. Results: Mean of age was 39.2 years and mean ± SD of FBS among men and women was 94.51 ± 32.91 and 98.2 ± 40.1 mg/dl, respectively. Prevalence of DM was 8.3% [(men = 6.8% and women = 9.7%), (urban = 10.5% and villages = 6.4%)]. Twenty-five percent of patients were undiagnosed as whole, 43% of patients were unaware of their problem, in men more than in women (48.5% versus 39.2%) and in rural area more than in urban area (35.1% versus 54.4%). We showed a positive and significant correlation between FBS and age, waist circumference and BMI (P = 0.01). Conclusion: DM was the one of the biggest health problems in the north of Iran, and half of them were unaware of their morbidity. DM was influenced by socio-demographic factors. © 2010 International Journal of Diabetes Mellitus. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved