Glycated haemoglobin and glycaemic control of diabetics in Ilorin.

Objectives: With increasing adoption of Western Lifestyle in Nigeria, the incidence of Diabetes Mellitus is on the increase in the country with its attendant complications. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of patients at risk of developing diabetic complications in Ilorin, Nigeria, among our patients with diabetes mellitus.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of diabetic patients attending the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital ted haemoglobin as an index of medium term glucose control was assayed in established diabetics. The result obtained was evaluated against the bench mark HbA1c value of 7.2% for the development of complication.

Results: Fifty-six percent of the subjects were females and all of them were forty years and above in age. Only four percent of the patients were below the age of forty years. Seventy-two percent of the subjects had diabetes for less than 10 years. Only female patients had BMI values greater than 30 kg/m2. About 64% of the patients had HbA1c value > 7.2%. More males (73.7%) had HbA1c 7.2% than females (64.5%) (P < 0.05). The patients had a mean HbA1c value of 8.0%, while the mean HbA1c in the control was 5.2%. These two mean HbA1c values gave a P-value of 0.0001 on Student t-test. The female diabetic patients had a mean HbA1c value of 7.8% (SD = 1.96) against the value of 5.1% (SD = 1.13) for the female control patients (P-value of 0.0001). Similarly, the male patients and male control subjects had mean HbA1c values of 8.1% (SD = 1.96) and 5.6% (SD = 1.00) respectively with P-value of 0.0001. The control subjects had a mean fasting blood glucose level of (+/- SD) 4.93 +/- 1.09 mmol/L and the corresponding value for the diabetics was 8.5 +/- 4.2 mmol/L. when these two values were compared we got a P-Value < 0.05.

Conclusions: The mean HbA1c values between the patients and the control subjects were significantly different. Diabetics in our environment with mean HbA1c value of 8.0% are prone to developing complications because of poor glycaemic control. We therefore advise that, periodic estimation ofglycated haemoglobin be carried out along side fasting blood glucose, in our diabetics.