Screening for diabetes among tuberculosis patients registered under revised national tuberculosis control program, Bhopal, India.

Context: Tuberculosis (TB) and diabetes mellitus (DM) remain a global public health problem. India has the largest number of TB cases; in 2015, out of total global annual incidence of 9.6 million TB cases, 2.2 million were estimated from India. There are 62.4 million people with type 2 diabetes and 77 million people with prediabetes in India, and these numbers are projected to increase to 101 million by the year 2030. Diabetes and TB affect each other at many levels. Screening for diabetes in patients with TB will not only help in early case detection but also better management of both comorbidities.

Aims: (i) To determine the prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes among diagnosed cases of TB registered under RNTCP in Bhopal district. (ii) To determine additional yield of previously unknown DM and the number needed to screen (NNS) to find out a new case of DM. (iii) To find out the factors associated with diabetes among patients diagnosed with TB registered under RNTCP in Bhopal district.

Settings And Design: This study was a cross-sectional study conducted on registered patients with TB under RNTCP in two TB units of Bhopal district.

Materials And Methods: Participants were contacted and interview was conducted after obtaining consent using predesigned and pretested performa during the period of 1 October 2014 to 30 March 2015 for a period of 6 months.

Statistical Analysis Used: Continuous variable were summarized as frequency, mean, and standard deviation. All variables were analyzed using Chi-square test of significance; < 0.05 was taken as statically significant.

Result: Of the total 528 patients with TB, 296 was male and 232 were female. Of the total, 63 (11.9%) patients were diagnosed as diabetic. NNS to diagnose a new case of DM was 22.1. Significant association was found with six variables which are age, sex, body mass index, type of TB, category of TB, and smoking.

Conclusion: This study shows feasibility and importance of screening of patients with TB in existing program settings.