Abstract:
Background: Diabetes mellitus is becoming public health burden in developing countries
like Ethiopia. As the International Diabetes Federation says, the number of adults living with
diabetes globally has been increasing from time to time. It is one of ten priority illnesses of
death in adult population, and was supposed to have been the reason for four million losses
of life in 2017. If early screening and follow-up are done, diabetes is a manageable disease.
Objective: The study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated factors of diabetes in
Assosa Town, West Ethiopia.
Methods and materials: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from
December 1/2021 to January 28/2022 among people aged 18 years and above in Assosa
Town, West Ethiopia. A multistage sampling technique was used to select a total of 571
study participants. Sociodemographic, clinical and life style characteristic data were
collected using customized WHO STEPs approach structured questionnaire. 5mL venous
blood samples were used to determine the level of blood glucose (hexokinase method) and
lipid profile (direct enzymatic method) by using cobas c 311 Roche clinical chemistry
analyzer. Diagnosis and classification of diabetes mellitus and prediabetes were based on the
criteria of the American Diabetes Association. The data were entered into Epi data version 3.1
and analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 (IBM, Chicago)
Results: A total of 560 individuals with 98% response rate were included in the study. Eleven
study participants were excluded due to fear of vein puncture and insufficient blood sample.
The age raged 18- 98 with maximum participants (39.3%) between 30-44 age group. 54.3%
male, 64.6%married, 35.9% diploma and above, 46.4% orthodox, 55% had low monthly
income and 36.4% unemployed. The prevalence of diabetes mellitus was 3.9% (95% CI ;
2.31-5.54), out of which 12 (54.5%) were newly diagnosed, while the prevalence of
prediabetes was 8.8%. 45.5% of DM found in 45-59 age groups. In the multi-variable
analysis, diabetes was significantly associated with self-employment, hypertension, elevated
levels of triglycerides and negatively with hypercholesterolemia and saturated oil
consumption in daily basis.
Conclusion: Even though current prevalence is comparable with nationally estimated
prevalence of diabetes, attention will be needed to reduce risk factors like hypertension,
hypertriglyceridemia, hypercholesterolemia and saturated oil consumption.
