Prevalence of cardiovascular and other selected diseases among Greenlanders with and without type 2 diabetes

Abstract

This study aims to estimate the prevalence of cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and other selected diseases including hypertension, atrial fibrillation, asthma, chronic obstructive lung disease, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, psoriasis and depression among Greenlanders living in Nuuk with and without type 2 diabetes (T2D). The study was designed as a cross-sectional case-control study based on data from the electronic medical record (EMR) in Greenland. Persons with a registered T2D diagnosis in EMR and residence in Nuuk (N = 435) were included. The prevalence of cardiovascular disease was 17.9% among persons with T2D and significantly higher compared to the control group (10.1%). In addition, our results showed a significantly higher prevalence of ischaemic heart disease, hypertension, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, osteoarthritis and psoriasis among persons with T2D compared to the control group.Our study found a higher prevalence in five out of 10 selected diseases in regularly followed persons with T2D in Nuuk compared to unselected controls. This enlightens the importance of a broad multifaceted approach in combination of changing primary health care to focus on early detection of controllable risk factors and chronic conditions care in Artic Greenland.

Keywords

• Diabetes
• complications
• Inuit
• co-morbidities
• Greenland