Insulin resistance in type 2 diabetic Nigerians

Background: Considerable interest has been generated and still continues on the role of insulin resistance in the aetiology of glucose intolerance and its complications. There is evidence to suggest that racial factors are important in this regard. Whereas Caucasian studies suggest insulin resistance to be universal in type-2 diabetes, African-American studies on the other hand suggest the contrary in a significant proportion of type-2 diabetic African-Americans. No previous study has been undertaken in this aspect in type-2 diabetic Nigerians. Objective: To measure insulin resistance using the Homeostasis Model Assessment (HOMA) among type-2 diabetic Nigerians. Subjects and methods: A cross sectional study involving 40 type-2 diabetic subjects and 36 controls. The HOMA method was used to compute insulin resistance for each subject. Individual HOMA scores were subjected to statistical analysis between the two (diabetic and non-diabetic) groups. Results: Forty type 2 diabetic patients and 36 healthy age and socio-economic status matched control subjects were studied. Mean HOMA scores were significantly higher among type 2 diabetic subjects than controls. Ten (27.8%) of the control subjects demonstrated HOMA insulin resistance values greater than one compared to 35 (87.5%) of type-2 diabetic patients (p