Prevalence of diabetes and obesity in an urban population of Argentina.

The prevalence of diabetes mellitus and obesity was studied in the urban area of La Plata City, Argentina. In the chosen population the age ranged from 20 to 74 years. Overt diabetics were not included in the study. For each individual, sex, age, weight, height, body mass index, (BMI), education, type of job and clinical and diabetic background were registered. Plasma glucose values were measured by reading Dextrostix strips in the Dextrometer, in samples obtained by finger punction 2 h after a 50-g glucose load. The final size of the sample (809 people), with an age and sex distribution similar to that of the general population, was attained at random, considering a diabetes prevalence of 6% in the population and a precision and confidence limit in the estimation of 2% and 95%, respectively. The results were evaluated using the post-load glucose values recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) (200 mg/100 ml). According to these values, the prevalence of diabetes in our population was 2.7%. When adding the 2.3% of known diabetics to these figures, a prevalence of 5% was obtained. The value of the ratio of number of normal newborns/number of pregnancies significantly diminished as a function of the increment in the plasma glucose values found in the probands. Taking into account the BMI values, 37% of our sample population were obese subjects. Even when the glucose values obtained in obese subjects were within the normal range, they were significantly higher than those obtained in the nonobese group.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)