Prevalence of diabetes among tuberculosis patients attending a tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is recognized as highly associated with tuberculosis (TB). In Bangladesh both diabetes and tuberculosis are major public health problems. Although the prevalence of TB and diabetes in Bangladesh are high, little is known about the association between the two diseases in the country. The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of diabetes among tuberculosis patients attending tertiary care hospital and to see the association between them. In this cross-sectional study 350 eligible TB patients participated who are selected by purposive sampling technique and study was done for 1 year from 1 June, 2014 to 31 st May, 2015. OGTT was done for those without previous history of DM and diagnosis was based on WHO criteria. Fasting and 2 hours after breakfast plasma glucose was done for previously known DM patients. A pretested questionnaire was used to collect information on socio-demographics, habitual risk factors. Anthropometric measurements with details of current treatment regimen of TB and DM were recorded. Out of 350 TB patients 70(20%)[CI 16%-24%] were found to have diabetes , of them 46 (19.4%) were male and 24 (21.2%) were female. and median age was 46 yrs (2170). For PTB, out of 175, 47 (26.9%) were found diabetic and for EPTB, of the 175, 23(13.1%) were diabetic, (p=<0.001). Family history of DM were significantly higher among DM group compare to non-DM group (p=<0.001). On Pearson correlation coefficient, a significant correlation was found between age and DM (r=0.327, p=0.001). On Binary logistic regression, family history of DM had 2.8 times more chance to developed DM (p=0.002; Odds ratio 2.812) and PTB had 2.9 times chance to developed DM (p=0.005; Odds ratio 2.973) after adjusting age, BMI, treatment category variables. The study demonstrates that diabetes mellitus is common among tuberculosis patients attending a tertiary care hospital in Bangladesh. The significant predictor associated with diabetes mellitus among tuberculosis patients was pulmonary TB.