Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Besides differences in the overall prevalence between IGT and IFG, there is now clear evidence of differences in phenotype between the two categories. The most consistent and statistically significant difference is that IFG is commoner in men than women in virtually all age groups, typically being 1.5–3 times higher, but up to seven or eight times higher in Europeans aged 50–70 years. Conversely, the prevalence of IGT is higher in women than men in all age groups except over the age of 60 in Asian populations.

Objective: To determine the relationship between age, sex and the development of dysglycaemia in Calabar.

Methods: The study was a cross sectional survey of a representative sample of Calabar metropolis comprising 645 males (56.9%) and 489 females (43.1%) aged between 15 and 79 years. A multistage sampling method was applied to select participants for the study. Anthropometric data was obtained and an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was performed on all participants following which participants were categorized as normal glucose tolerance (NGT), IFG, IGT and diabetes mellitus (DM). Anthropometric indices were expressed as mean (S.D.). The categorisation was done using American Diabetes Association (ADA) classification (2003) and the result in percentages.

Results: The proportion males and females with IFG (56.7% males, 50.6% females), IGT (46.3% males, 44.2% females) and Diabetes Mellitus (64.7% males, 60.9% females) was highest in the middle age group. The prevalence of various forms of dysglycaemia was significantly higher in males than females; IFG (9.3% vs 8.2%), IGT (21.1% vs 17.6%) and DM (7.9% vs 4.9%).

Conclusion: Age and sex differences are important risk factors for dysglycaemia and the tendency for prevalence of IGT to increase in all age groups may have implications for diabetes care.