Diabetes Unawareness in Patients Hospitalized Other Than Internal Medicine Services and Related Factors: A Cross-Sectional Multidisciplinary Study

Abstract

The aim of the study is to investigate the prevalence of diabetes unawareness in patients hospitalized in clinics other than internal medicine and evaluate the factor s associated with them. Patients and Methods: This multi-center, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted with 630 participants who were inpatients of internal and surgical clinics The participants’ anthropometric measurements, glucose and HbA1c measurements were made. Those without a known diabetes diagnosis but with an HbA1c value of ? 6.5% were grouped as diabetes unaw are. Results: The number of the patients with known diabetes was 190 (30.2%), 396 (62.9%) did not have diabetes, and unknown diabetes was detected in 44 (7%). There were a higher rate of young (<45 years) and male patients in those with diabetes unawareness than those in the known diabetes group (p<0.01, p<0.05). The rate of overweight and absence of comorbidity were higher in the diabetes unaware group than known diabetics. (p<0.01, p:0.01). The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the male sex, age<45 years, being overweight and absence of a comorbidity were associated with diabetes unawareness. Conclusion: Undiagnosed diabetes was detected in 7% of the patients. Among all diabetics, 18.8% had diabetes unawareness. Conducting diabetes screening with HbA1c in inpatients and paying special attention to those under 45, males, overweight patients and those without comorbidities may help detect unknown diabetes.