Prevalence of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus in urban areas of eastern Nepal: a hospital based study.

Non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), which affects millions of people throughout the world, is a widely prevalent chronic debilitating disease that causes short term and long term complications. It is a problem in a developing country like Nepal, where there has been no report of prevalence. Hence this study was undertaken to investigate the prevalence of NIDDM among urban patients attending the outpatient clinic of BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) hospital, and coming from the eastern part of Nepal. A sample of 1,840 subjects was incorporated in the study during a period of one year. WHO diagnostic criteria (1985) were followed to establish the diagnosis of NIDDM. The prevalence of diabetes was 6.3% (1.63% previous and 4.67% new) which is relatively high in comparison to many other countries. The prevalence of NIDDM in females was relatively lower (5.75%) than in males (6.73%). The prevalence showed an increasing trend with increasing age. The high incidence (new cases) of NIDDM in Nepal as found in the study may be due to lack of public awareness regarding the problem and poor medical services in the country.