Profile of the Adult Filipino with High Blood Sugar in the 8th National Nutrition Survey: Validation of the Philippine Guidelines for Screening

ABSTRACT

@#AIMS: Practice guidelines on diabetes in the Philippines have recommendations for screening using risk factors with thresholds based on international data. This paper investigated whether there is a basis to support these screening recommendations using data from the 8 th Philippine National Nutrition Survey (NNS). METHODOLOGY: This is a cross-sectional analytic study of data from the results of the 8 th Philippine NNS that was conducted across the country from June 2013 to April 2014. Crude odds ratios were obtained for each variable to determine their association with diabetes, and multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the independent association of demographic and clinical characteristics with diabetes. RESULTS: These variables were found to be significantly associated with diabetes and impaired fasting glucose male gender; age > 40 years; hypertension with BP > 140/90 mm Hg; triglyceride levels > 150 mg/dL; overweight with BMI > 23 kg/m2 ; and abdominal obesity with waist circumference ≥ 90 cm in male and ≥ 80 cm in female adults. CONCLUSION: The risk factors associated with diabetes mellitus among adult Filipinos are similar to other countries but the development of diabetes is associated with relatively younger age, and lower BMI and waist circumference.