Endocrine Abstracts

Background and Objectives: Fasting causes a major change in the dietary habits including the frequency, the timing, and the patterns which will result in a major change in the metabolic response of the body. Physicians should advise the patients about the complications of diabetes mellitus during fasting especially hypoglycemia, the aim of this study is to determine the relation between type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypoglycemia and to evaluate whether this correlation is significant or not.

Patients and Methods: This is a cross-sectional prospective study, which included 304 Muslim patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who decided to fast Ramadan during 2019 in two cities, 122 patients were from Duhok city and 183 patients from Erbil city, Kurdistan region of Iraq.

Results: Majority of patients fasted the Ramadan and the mean days of fasting were 26.96. Most patients had no attacks of hypoglycemia (85%), 4.6% have a single attack, and 8% had 4 attacks. There was no significant correlation between the hypoglycemic attacks and the variables studied in this article, such as the duration of diabetes, oral hypoglycemic agents, days of fasting, and fasting before Ramadan.

Conclusion: Physicians must warn patients about the possible risk of hypoglycemia during fating and it’s the patient’s own decision to continue fasting or not, however the high risk group should be advised against fasting. Lastly, the other role of physician is to adjust the dose of anti-diabetic drugs during fasting in order to minimize the risk of hypoglycemia.

References: 1. Fatim, J., et al., Attitudinal determinants of fasting in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients during Ramadan. J Assoc Physicians India, 2011. 59: p. 630-4.2. Ahmed Qasim, B., Ahmad Mohammed, A., Jabbar Ahmed, M., & Khezer Ahmed, S. (2021). Pre-ramadan counseling among type two diabetic patients who decided to fast ramadan. Duhok Medical Journal, 15(1), 96-105. Retrieved from https://dmj.uod.ac/index.php/dmj/article/view/150.