Prevalence of diabetes in rural and urban populations in southern Sierra Leone: a preliminary survey

We conducted a preliminary community survey for diabetes in the Bo district of southern Sierra Leone. Five hundred and one subjects comprising 256 rural adults in two villages and 245 urban adults in Bo town were randomly selected and screened for diabetes using random capillary blood glucose according to WHO criteria. There were 6 diabetics, all in the urban area, giving a prevalence of 2.4% in the urban population, and 0% in the rural villages. The mean (s.d.) capillary random blood glucose (RBG) concentration was 5.7±1.7 mmol/l for the entire study population, while concentrations for the urban and rural populations were 5.8±2 and 5.5±1.4 mmol/l respectively (P>0.05). RBG increased significantly with age. The mean (s.d.) body mass index (BMI) was 22.3±4.9 kg/m2 for the total population while those for the urban and rural populations were 23.0±5.8 and 21.6±3.6 respectively (P