Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: To determine the effect of socioeconomic and educational status on metabolic control in T2D patients in Republic of Srpska (RS)

Subjects and method: This is a cross–sectional study of 1088 subjects aged 18 or higher who were randomized from primary care physicians’ T2D diabetes registries. Socioeconomic, educational, anthropometric and metabolic characteristics of T2D patients were analyzed.

Results: Highest proportion of participants were older than 65 (47.9%) with 55% women and 44.5% men. 65.3% were retirees with single monthly income (61.4%) of up to 300€ (63.2%). More than half of participants had elementary level or no education at all. Unsatisfactory HbA1c level was statistically significantly more common (61.1%:38.9%, χ² = 4.874, df = 1, P = 0.027) in patients of low socioeconomic and educational status. Half of participants were obese (BMI ≥ 30kg/m²) and 75% had abdominal obesity with elevated levels of cholesterol (75.6%), LDL (86.0%) and triglycerides (54.3%), and low HDL levels (55.9%). Albuminuria and proteinuria were reported in 59.7% and hypertension in 88.61% of subjects.

Conclusion: High percentage of T2D patients of low socioeconomic and educational status in Republic of Srpska has not achieved target values of good metabolic control, is obese and has microalbuminuria. This could be related to low educational level, low monthly income and older age. Since most participants live with other family members it is necessary to educate those family members to take active part in realization of health guidelines for diabetes management.