Prevalence of diabetes mellitus and impaired glucose tolerance in Benghazi Libya

OBJECTIVES: To assess, by a house to house study, the prevalence of diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and their associated risk factors in Benghazi, Libya using 75 gram oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and ADA 1997 and WHO 1998 diagnostic criteria. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A multistage cluster sampling was used to select the study population. A total of 314 men and 554 women underwent a standard 75 grams OGTT. The response rate was 77.7% for males and 89.2% for females. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of IGT was 8.5% (95% confidence interval (CI) 5.8 - 11.3) (men 8.6% 95% CI 7.7-9.6, women 8.5% 95% CI 5.0 -11.9), and that of diabetes was 14.1% (95% CI 10.9-17.1) (men 16.3% 95% CI 14.5-18.3 women 13.0% 95% CI 10.0 - 16.1). Diabetes was present in 19.4% (95% CI 15.4-20.5) (men 22.7% 95% CI 20.2-25.4, women 17.6% 95% CI 14.1-19.1) in 30-64 years age range. Prevalence of diabetes was slightly higher in urban than in rural areas (14.5% vs 13.5%). The prevalence of newly diagnosed diabetes in urban and rural areas were 3.6% and 7.3% respectively and that of known diabetes were 10.9% and 6.3% respectively. Associated risk factors with diabetes and IGT were age, family history of diabetes, hypertension, BMI, WHR and serum cholesterol. CONCLUSION: Diabetes is emerging as an important public health problem in Libya and should rank very high in the priority list of health planners.