Diabetes prevalence and its risk factors in rural area of Tamil Nadu

To estimate the usefulness of the Indian diabetes risk score for detecting undiagnosed diabetes in the rural area of Tamil Nadu. The present study was conducted in the field practice area of rural health centers (Chunampett and Annechikuppam, Tamil Nadu), covering a population of 35000 from February to March 2008 by using a predesigned and pretested protocol to find out the prevalence and the risk of diabetes mellitus in general population by using Indian diabetes risk score. 1936 respondents comprising 1167 (60.27%) females and 769 (39.73%) males were studied. Majority 1203 (62.50%) were Hindus. 1220 (63.%) had studied up to higher secondary. 1200 (62%) belonged to lower and lower-middle socio-economic class. A large number of the subjects 948 (50%) were below 35 years of age. Most of the respondents 1411 (73%) indulged in mild to moderate physical activity. 1715 (87.91%) had no family history of diabetes mellitus. 750 (39.64%) individuals were in the overweight category (>25 BMI). Out of these overweight persons, 64% had high diabetic risk score. It is observed that chances of high diabetic score increase with the increase in BMI. Prevalence of diabetes in studied population was 5.99%; out of these, 56% known cases of diabetes mellitus had high (>60) IDRS. Co-relation between BMI and IDRS shows that, if BMI increases from less than 18.50 to more than 30, chances of high risk for developing diabetes mellitus also significantly increase. This study estimates the usefulness of simplified Indian diabetes risk score for identifying undiagnosed high risk diabetic subjects in India. This simplified diabetes risk score has categorized the risk factors based on their severity. Use of the IDRS can make mass screening for undiagnosed diabetes in India more cost effective.