Clinical, anthropometric and laboratory characterization of women with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Introduction: The diabetes mellitus is a public health problem and its understanding would help to reduce complications.                      
Objective: Characterizing the patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus based on clinical, anthropometric, and laboratory variables.              
Methods: Cross-sectional study in the municipality of Holguin to a prospective sample per groups of 134 women with risk factors. We applied the ANOVA, the Mann-Whitney test and X2 with α = 0,05, in SPSS.                                                                                                     
Results: The diabetes mellitus frequency was 43,2 %. Diabetic women had higher values of age, waist circumference, waist/hip ratio, blood pressure, blood glucose and triglycerides than patients without diabetes mellitus (n = 74); the opposite occurred with the hip circumference. It was found a significant association between the diabetes mellitus and the presence of the metabolic syndrome ( X2 = 41,570; p = 0,000). The diabetes was associated with the body weight excess ( X2 = 7,506; p = 0,023), the ischemic heart disease ( X2 = 6,778; p = 0,009), and the arterial hypertension ( X2 = 5,245, p = 0,022), although it was not associated with smoking ( X2 = 0,233, p = 0,629).                                             
Conclusions: It is important the characterization of the diabetes mellitus because of the high frequency of co-morbidities such as the metabolic syndrome, the ischemic heart disease, the arterial hypertension, the obesity, the atherogenic dyslipidemia. We recommend the intervention of these patients with changes in their lifestyle, incorporating new variables and extending the research to the province of Holguin.