Diabetic Profile- Screening of HBA1C - A Random Community Assessment.

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus is becoming the commonest non-communicable disease in the world. Strict control of diabetes mellitus is associated with fewer incidences of complications. Screening for control of diabetes is a useful intervention, because diabetes is a highly morbid illness with a long asymptomatic phase. Glycosylated Haemoglob in (HbA1C) is the ideal parameter which can be used to assess the diabetic control, as this parameter is not alterable with single day manipulations. AIMS: Our main objective was to find out the mean HbA1C in a random assessment. The other supplementary objectives were to find out the prevalence of hypertension, smoking, obesity, vascular events and hypoglycaemic episodes and any possible correlation with HbA1C values.
METHODOLOGY: The selection of 100 diabetic patients who reported to the diabetic centre in a randomly selected day was done. They were subjected to a simple questionnaire with on spot HbA1c assessment. The questionnaire described the evidence of vascular events, risk factors, hypoglycaemic episodes, etc.
RESULTS: A mean HbA1C value of 8.91 was found out, which was far higher than the normal (7.0%). The prevalences of other variables coincided with those which were seen in previous studies. The hypoglycaemic episodes were high, but the patients with such episodes had a higher mean HbA1C. This could be possible as our patients consumed sweet and sugar with such events and had higher mean glucose values. It has been suggested that physicians and patients should work synchronously to achieve better diabetic control. The physician should strictly enforce weight reduction and quitting of smoking.