Indian Journal of Health Sciences and Biomedical Research KLEU (Sep 2024)

A cross-sectional assessment of diabetes risk among adults in a limited-resource urban primary care setting in West Bengal, India

  • Nazrul Mallick,
  • Puspendu Biswas,
  • Dwija Poddar,
  • Debayan Podder,
  • Disha Bhowmik,
  • Dipika Sarkar

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/kleuhsj.kleuhsj_461_24
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 17, no. 3
pp. 279 – 284

Abstract

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INTRODUCTION: India faces a burgeoning burden of type 2 diabetes mellitus, projected to reach 87 million by 2030, with alarmingly high undiagnosed cases. Early identification remains crucial for targeted health interventions. This study employed a validated risk assessment tool to identify high-risk individuals and explore associations with diabetes risk factors. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted for 3 months among nondiabetic consenting adults (above 18 years) attending a limited-resource urban primary health center in the field practice area of a teaching hospital in Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal. A predesigned, pretested schedule containing domains on sociodemographics, dietary, medical history, and validated risk assessment tool - the Indian Diabetes Risk Score (IDRS) was used to collect data from an estimated sample of 112 adults. RESULTS: Of all the participants who underwent diabetes risk assessment, the majority (67.9%) were females and residents (71.4%) of adjacent rural areas. Findings showed that the majority of participants were in the moderate-high risk category of developing diabetes, of which 16.07% had high, 57.14% had moderate, and 26.78% had low risk with an overall mean (standard deviation) risk score of 39.11 (18.63). Bivariate analysis showed a statistically significant relationship (P < 0.05) between diabetes risk score with age, education, hypertension, physical activity, dietary salt intake, and family history of diabetes. CONCLUSION: Simple, noninvasive diabetes risk assessment tools like IDRS provide cost-effective solutions in identifying at-risk individuals in primary care settings; therefore, it should be implemented in limited resource settings for early risk identification and management of diabetes, consequently decreasing the disease burden.

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