%0 Journal Article
%T Significant Differences in the Prevalence of Elevated HbA1c Levels for Type I and Type II Diabetics Attending the Parirenyatwa Diabetic Clinic in Harare, Zimbabwe
%A Kurai Z. Chako
%A Heather Phillipo
%A Erisi Mafuratidze
%A Danai Tavonga Zhou
%J Chinese Journal of Biology
%D 2014
%R 10.1155/2014/672980
%X Diabetics have chronically elevated glucose levels. High levels of glucose result in nonenzymatic formation of glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c). Therefore, elevated HbA1c is a good indicator of poorly controlled diabetes. We used the standard HbA1c method to determine glycemic control in diabetics attending a public health facility in Harare, Zimbabwe. Our study sought to assess the prevalence of elevated HbA1c amongst treated diabetics and compare the HbA1c levels by type of diabetes. The cross-sectional study was carried out at one of the main public health centres in Zimbabwe: the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals in Harare. Type I and type II diabetics were recruited and had their blood HbA1c levels measured. The standard one tailed proportion z test was used to test the hypothesis at 5% significance level. Combined prevalence of type I and type II diabetics with elevated HbA1c was 27%. There was no significant difference in levels of HbA1c by age and sex. Over half (54%) of Type I diabetics had elevated HbA1c, suggesting poor glycemic control. In contrast only 24% of the Type II diabetics studied had elevated HbA1c. The difference in proportion of Type I and Type II diabetics with elevated HbA1c suggestive of poor glycemic control was significant ( ). 1. Introduction According to the World Health Organization (WHO) diabetes mellitus is a state of chronic hyperglycaemia due to genetic and environmental factors. In Type 1 diabetes mellitus there is no production of insulin whereas in Type 2 diabetes mellitus there is insufficient insulin or cells do not respond to insulin present in the body (insulin resistance). The most frequent form is Type 2 diabetes (80% of cases) whilst Type 1 diabetes accounts for 10% of cases and specific diabetes such as gestational diabetes accounts for 5% of cases [1, 2]. In 2004 it was estimated that up to 3.4 million people died from diabetes and 80% of these deaths occurred in low and middle income countries such as Zimbabwe [3¨C5]. Half of the people who died as a result of diabetes were under the age of 70, 55% of them women [3¨C5]. Diabetes mellitus was generally considered to be a rare condition in Africa before the 1990s. Evidence of increased incidence and prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus was provided by some epidemiological studies carried out in that decade [5¨C7]. Africa is experiencing a demographic and epidemiological transition with a rise in diseases like diabetes mellitus. Most reports published between 1959 and 1985 indicated a prevalence of diabetes below 1.4% with the exception of those from South
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/cjb/2014/672980/