Some demographic and therapeutic features of diabetes mellitus in Kuwait.

A survey of all consecutive visits to all diabetic clinics in Kuwait over a period of 4 months yielded 1,266 male and 1,838 female Kuwaiti patients. Their age structure analysis revealed percent frequencies of 1.25, 15.5, 57.8 and 25.3 for the age groups under 19, 20-39, 40-59 and over 60 years respectively. The overall female:male ratio was 1.42. The body mass index peaked in the age groups 30-39 (mean +/- SD = 31.3 +/- 7.1 for women and 29.4 +/- 6.4 for men) and was consistently higher in women than in men for all age groups. Diabetic women over 30 years of age received insulin therapy more often than men. Home urine testing was practised by only 25% of those under 30 years of age and 12% of those 30 years and over. The study showed that the majority of Kuwaiti patients were relatively young and that the women were affected more often and probably more severely than men as suggested by the higher frequencies of insulin administration.