Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Anaemia is the most prevalent haematological complication among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. It has an adverse effect on the development and progression of microvascular and macrovascular complications among these patients. Despite this problem, there is paucity of data on the condition in Kano, Northwestern Nigeria. Hence the need for the baseline research.

Methodology: The study was a cross-sectional hospital-based study which recruited 200 type diabetes mellitus patients as participants. After obtaining ethical approval and consent, data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Anthropometric measurements and blood pressure were done. Laboratory tests such as haemoglobin levels, red cells indices and glycated haemoglobin were done. The data were analysed using SPSS version 22.

Results: The mean age of the participants was 51.4± 14.2 years and 68% of them were females. Most of the participants are overweight or obese with a mean body mass index of 26.4± 5.8kg/m² . Glycemic control was poor with an average glycated haemoglobin level of 8.3± 5.8%. The prevalence of anaemia among the participants was 36%. Using red cell indices, microcytic anaemia was found among 14% of the anaemic patients, macrocytic anaemia among 37% and normocytic anaemia was found among 21% of the anaemic participants. Adavance age was the single determinant for the development of anaemia among these participants (P = 0.028).

Conclusion: Anaemia is very common among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Kano, Northwestern Nigeria and hence there is need for further evaluation of the condition in order to curtail its deleterious effect on the management of these group of patients.

Keywords: Anaemia, Type 2 diabetes mellitus, Kano