Heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and cancer are the major causes of morbidity and mortality in the occupied Palestinian territory, resulting in a high direct cost of care, high indirect cost in loss of production, and much societal stress. The rates of the classic risk factors for atherosclerotic disease-namely, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, tobacco smoking, and dyslipidaemia-are high and similar to those in neighbouring countries. The urbanisation and continuing nutritional change from a healthy Mediterranean diet to an increasingly western-style diet is associated with reduced activity, obesity, and a loss of the protective effect of the traditional diet.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Regular examination and early treatment of diabetic retinopathy can prevent visual loss. The aim of the study was to describe the care of vision and ocular health in people with diabetes in Norway.
Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey of a random sample (n = 1,887) of the Norwegian Diabetic Associations' (NDA) members was carried out in 2005.
Background: The scope of optometry differs worldwide. In Norway the vast majority of optometrists perform ophthalmoscopy as part of their routine examinations. The aim of this study was to describe the frequency of suspected retinopathies in patients seen for routine optometric examination and to determine how optometrists deal with these patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Ophthalmol Scand
September 2007
Purpose: To describe optometric practitioners and their encountering patients.
Methods: All members of the Norwegian Association of Optometrists working in the community (n = 761) were invited to participate in a questionnaire survey; questionnaire responders (n = 508) were asked to take part in a practice registration. Data collection was carried out between November 2004 and May 2005 using a questionnaire and a practice registration form.
Background: Few studies have directly compared the renoprotective effects of angiotensin II-receptor blockers and angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in persons with type 2 diabetes.
Methods: In this prospective, multicenter, double-blind, five-year study, we randomly assigned 250 subjects with type 2 diabetes and early nephropathy to receive either the angiotensin II-receptor blocker telmisartan (80 mg daily, in 120 subjects) or the ACE inhibitor enalapril (20 mg daily, in 130 subjects). The primary end point was the change in the glomerular filtration rate (determined by measuring the plasma clearance of iohexol) between the baseline value and the last available value during the five-year treatment period.
Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the distribution and association of selected risk factors for diabetes mellitus in a semi-rural Palestinian village.
Material/methods: We performed a cross-sectional, population-based study of 500 adults aged 30 to 65 in a semi-rural Palestinian village. The study included two phases: a household survey and an individual assessment utilizing the oral glucose tolerance test OGTT to determine the diabetes status of the participants, anthropometric measurements for body mass index (BMI) and waist-hip ratio (WHR), blood biochemistry measurements for lipids, blood pressure measurement, and a standard questionnaire to assess demographic and other factors.
East Mediterr Health J
March 2003
We investigated the prevalence of diabetes and associated factors in a cross-sectional survey of an urban Palestinian population of 492 men and women aged 30-65 years. The oral glucose tolerance test was used to diagnose diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance. World Health Organization-recommended survey protocols were followed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Obes Relat Metab Disord
January 2003
Objective: To compare the prevalence of obesity, household food consumption patterns, physical activity patterns and smoking between a rural and an urban community in the Palestinian West Bank and to describe the associations of the latter factors with body mass index (BMI).
Design: A population-based cross-sectional survey in a rural and an urban Palestinian West Bank community.
Subjects: A total of 549 women and 387 men aged 30-65 y, excluding pregnant women.
East Mediterr Health J
September 2002
The prevalence of diabetes mellitus and impaired glucose tolerance was investigated in a cross-sectional population-based study in a rural Palestinian population of 500 females and males aged 30-65 years. The prevalence of diabetes was 9.6% and 10.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Obes Relat Metab Disord
November 2001
Objective: To assess the prevalence of obesity and central obesity in an urban Palestinian population and their associations with selected co-morbidities, including diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidaemia.
Design: A population-based cross-sectional survey in an urban Palestinian community.
Subjects: Men and women aged 30-65 y residing in the urban community, excluding pregnant women.
Aims: To study the glucose disappearance rate and fasting blood glucose as predictors of Type 2 diabetes in a 22.5-year prospective follow-up of 1947 healthy non-diabetic men.
Subjects And Methods: Of a cohort of 2014 Caucasian men, the 1947 who had both fasting blood glucose < 110 mg/dl and an intravenous glucose tolerance test were included.
Objective: To compare the prevalence of components of the metabolic syndrome, including hypertension, abnormal glucose metabolism, dyslipidemia, central obesity, and overall obesity, between a rural and an urban Palestinian West Bank community.
Research Design And Methods: A total of 500 rural and 492 urban men and women aged 30-65 years participated in a community-based cross-sectional survey Diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance were diagnosed using the oral glucose tolerance test. BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, and blood pressure were measured, and blood samples were taken from each subject.
This paper aims to evaluate the utility of a single glucometer fasting capillary blood glucose (FCBG) measurement in determining the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in a homogeneous adult population. FCBG measurements were compared with results of the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in 445 subjects aged 30-65 years in an urban cross-sectional study in Old Ramallah. Prevalence of diabetes, sensitivity, specificity and predictive values were calculated at different cut-off levels of FCBG, using OGTT as the reference.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: To investigate the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes mellitus and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and to identify risk factors associated with diabetes in a rural Palestinian village.
Methods: A cross-sectional, population-based study investigating 500 adults aged 30-65 years (response rate 85%) determined the diabetes status using the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). A standard questionnaire, a simple clinical examination and laboratory tests assessed blood lipids, blood pressure, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), body mass index (BMI) and other risk factors for diabetes
Results: The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes was 9.
Diabetes mellitus is becoming more widespread, as a result of a growing and ageing world population, and the fact that people with diabetes, particularly type 1, live longer than before. There is also, however, a rising incidence, both of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The reasons for the increasing incidence of type 1 diabetes are unknown, whereas the rising incidence of type 2 is caused by rising urbanisation, particularly in developing countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Patients with type 2 diabetes have a high risk of morbidity and premature mortality from cardiovascular disease. Epidemiological studies show that many of the risk factors are the same as in non-diabetic subjects. At present there are sufficient data in the literature to recommend prophylactic measures to be initiated in diabetic patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Although an excess transmission of type 2 diabetes from mothers has been documented, whether this is an independent trait or whether the effect can be detected early through risk factors for type 2 diabetes remains to be elucidated. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of and the possible prospective effect of family history on type 2 diabetes incidence adjusted for multiple diabetes risk factors in a 22.5-year follow-up study of healthy men.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn 1997, the diagnostic criteria for diabetes mellitus were changed in the USA; the WHO has also proposed changes in its criteria. The main difference from the previous set of WHo criteria is a lowering of the cut-off level of fasting plasma glucose to > or = 7.0 mmol/l.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Because of the available conflicting epidemiological data, we investigated the possible impact of fasting blood glucose as a risk factor for cardiovascular death in nondiabetic men. This study reports the results from a 22-year prospective study on fasting blood glucose as a predictor of cardiovascular death.
Research Design And Methods: Of the 1,998 apparently healthy nondiabetic men (aged 40-59 years), a total of 1,973 with fasting blood glucose < 110 mg/dl were included in the study in which also a number of conventional risk factors were measured at baseline.
Guidelines on the out-patient management of diabetic peripheral neuropathy have been developed from an international consensus meeting attended by diabetologists, neurologists, primary care physicians, podiatrists and diabetes specialist nurses. A copy of the full document follows this summary (Appendix 1). The document arose out of suggestions from Neurodiab, a subgroup of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, that there was a need for guidelines developed by consensus, for the outpatient management of patients with diabetic neuropathy.
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