Consequence of War on Diabetic Mellitus patients in Tigray region, Ethiopia: a longitudinal study

Abstract

Abstract Background Studies of the world health organization indicated that Diabetes is on the rise. The occurrence of diabetes is steadily increasing everywhere, most markedly in the world’s middle and low-income countries. The aim of this study is to explore the consequence of war on the sugar level of diabetic mellitus patients. Methods A retrospective longitudinal study with a sample of 67 diabetic mellitus patients was used. As a result, longitudinal different models, which are generalized linear mixed effects and nonlinear mixed effect models were fitted on the continuous response variable, the Sugar Level of the diabetic patients. Results The results depicted that Blood Sugar Level of the patients increases over time. Moreover, as age, weight, medication, total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL), creatinine and linear time effect increase, Blood Sugar Level increases significantly, whereas triglyceride and low density lipoprotein increase, Blood Sugar Level of the adult Diabetes mellitus patients decreases. Conclusion The war has significant effect on the poor control of blood glucose level of the adult diabetic patients in Tigray region, Ethiopia. Due to the war, siege or blockages, in return there were rare of medicine, the patients were not taking their medicines on time, and they did not get enough insulin as well.

Keywords

• Diabetic Mellitus
• Sugar level
• War consequence
• Generalized Linear Mixed Model
• Nonlinear Mixed Model