Assessment of Glycaemic Control among Diabetic Patients Attending Care at Bowen University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by hyperglycaemia resulting from impairment in insulin secretion, insulin action or both. The aim of management of diabetes mellitus is to achieve and maintain blood glucose levels within normal ranges and prevent its complications. This study aims to assess the glycaemic control among adult outpatients with diabetes mellitus in Bowen University Teaching Hospital (BUTH), Ogbomoso with a view to intensify effort towards achieving good glycaemic control.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study in which 299 consenting diabetic patients were recruited using systematic sampling technique. Sociodemographic characteristics of each participant and their medical history were obtained using a structured interviewer administered questionnaire. The level of glycaemic control was assessed with glycosylated haemoglobin level and recorded for each participant and it was classified as either poor or good. The data collected was analysed using SPSS version 20 software and presented as Descriptive statistics. The association between two or more categorical variable was tested using Chi-square test and fisher’s exact test. Statistical significance was set at p-value less than 0.05.

Results: The age group above 60 years had the highest proportion (41.8%) of participants, 60.9% of the participants were females. Majority of the participants (91.6%) were married. About 67.9% of the respondents were in social class 2 and majority of the participants (69.6%) were urban dwellers. Participants on oral anti-diabetic drugs were 62.2% and of this proportion, about 34.1% were on both oral drugs and insulin. About 67.2% of the participants had a duration of diabetes less than 5 years. Most of the participants had a poor glycaemic control with a frequency of 83.6%. The mean level of glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1C) in this study was 9.2 ± 2.5%. A significant association with glycaemic control was found with the participants age group, sex, level of education and duration on treatment.

Conclusion: The long-term glycaemic control of the participants was unacceptably poor. There is need to intensify efforts targeting good glycaemic control in the patients with diabetes mellitus in order to prevent complications from the disease. There is also a need to do further studies to find out the factors associated with poor glycaemic control found in this study.