Prevalence of pre-diabetes in young Mexican adults in primary health care.

Background: Pre-diabetes in young people is frequently unrecognized or not treated on time, with the consequent loss of opportunity for diabetes prevention. In Mexico, there is scarce information about the prevalence of pre-diabetes in young adults.

Objective: To determine the prevalence and risk factors for pre-diabetes in young Mexican adults in primary health care.

Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 288 subjects, aged 18-30 years, from a primary care unit were included. Pre-diabetes was diagnosed (according to the criteria of the American Diabetes Association) as impaired fasting glucose (8-12 hours fasting plasma glucose level: 100-125 mg/dl) or impaired glucose tolerance (140-199 mg/dl after a 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test).

Results: Prevalence of pre-diabetes was 14.6% [95% confidence interval (CI): 10.7-19.2], whereas that of diabetes was 2.4% (95% CI: 1.0-4.9). A high proportion of patients had history of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and consumption of tobacco and alcohol. Pre-diabetic patients were older than normoglycaemics (pre-diabetic patients: 26±4 years versus normoglycaemic subjects: 24±3 years, P = 0.003) and had higher body mass index (BMI; pre-diabetic patients: 29.4±6.8 kg/m(2) versus normoglycaemic subjects: 26.8±5.8 kg/m(2); P = 0.009), particularly in the case of men (pre-diabetic men: 29.3±7.0 kg/m(2) versus normoglycaemic men: 26.4±5.1 kg/m(2); P = 0.03). Although waist circumference showed a trend to be higher among pre-diabetics, no significant differences were found according to gender (among males: pre-diabetics: 99.5±18.8 cm versus normoglycaemics: 93.3±14.4 cm, P = 0.09; among females: pre-diabetics: 91.5±13.8 cm versus normoglycaemics: 85.8±15.9 cm, P = 0.16). Only age and BMI were significantly associated with the presence of pre-diabetes.

Conclusions: Almost 15% of these young adults had pre-diabetes. Many modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors were present in these patients, but only age and a higher BMI were independent variables significantly associated with pre-diabetes. Timely interventions in primary health care are needed to prevent or delay the progression to diabetes.