Opportunistic screening for undiagnosed diabetes mellitus and pre-diabetes in sulaimani city and its associated risk factors

Background Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common non-communicable diseases worldwide, and is one of the major global risks for mortality, especially due to cardiovascular diseases. Pre-diabetes is a transitional stage between normal and diabetes, it is thus important to identify people in the pre-diabetic state early by active screening to prevent its micro-and macrovascular complications. Objectives This study aimed to find out the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes mellitus and pre-diabetes Mellitus among adults in Sulaimani City, and its associated risk factors Materials and Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in five Primary Health Care Centers in Sulaimani City from which is located in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq from 23 July to 20 December 2019. Data were gathered through direct interviews with the participants. The questionnaire includes demographic characteristics and risk factors. Participants were subjected to random blood glucose assessments. Those random blood glucose >140mg/dl were subjected to further confirmatory tests of fasting plasma glucose, HbA1c, and lipid profile. SPSS was used to measure means; Chi-square and logistic regression were used when indicated to be significant at p-value ≤ 0.05. Results A total of 1300 participants 30 years and above were studied, Mean age (SD) of the participants was 46.2 ±10.7years. The prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes and pre-diabetes was 3.8%, and 2.6% respectively. The significant risk factors of diabetes were age, family history of diabetes, both overweight and obesity, fruit intake of more than five serving per week, hypertension, and lipid abnormality (p<0.05) Conclusion The prevalence rate of undiagnosed diabetes mellitus and pre-diabetes is at a moderate level. Age more than 40 years, history of hypertension, were strong predictors for undiagnosed diabetes mellitus and pre-diabetes, also hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia were positively correlated with hyperglycemia.