Prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus in the Human Population of Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan.

Abstract

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a disease caused when the production of insulin from pancreas is reduced. Blindness, failure of kidneys and severe amputations may be the ultimate consequences associated with this disease. The patients suffering from diabetes are increasing at an alarming rate and WHO predicted that this number will go up with a very high acceleration in coming future (380 million patients by 2025). In Pakistan where the health budged is quite low as compared to its neighboring countries, prevalence of diabetes will be a huge burden to its economy. So, this study was conducted to estimate the ratio of diabetes patients in Bahawalpur city. A total of 716 peoples were tested and 308 were positive for diabetes mean the ratio was 43.01% which was quite alarming. Females were found to be more affected (43.62%) as compared to males (42.43%). This disease is more prevalent in families with normal socioeconomic statu. Based on these results we suggest a further in-depth study so in future we could cope with this emerging issue.