ABSTRACT
Background: Diabetic peripheral neuropathies (DPN) are a common complication of diabetes mellitus (DM). DPN can be either painless or painful.General objective: To determine the prevalence of DPN among DM type II patients at King Fahd University Hospital (KFUH), Al-Khobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).Specific objectives: To see the association between the prevalence of DPN and patient demographics and body mass index (BMI).To assess the relationship between the prevalence of DPN and DM type II and duration of disease.To provide awareness and education of DPN by pamphlets to the recruited diabetic patients at KFUH, Al-Khobar, KSA.Methods: questionnaire-based cross-sectional study, recruited DM type II patients from the internal medicine outpatient clinics at KFUH, Khobar, KSA. The investigators recorded patients' demographics (age, sex, and nationality), height, weight, and BMI, diabetes duration in years and laboratory results of fasting blood glucose (FBG), Hemoglobin A1C and the Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument (MNSI) has been applied.Results: among 187 recruited patients with type II DM, the prevalence of DPN was 37.4%. The mean age range of the sample was 56.4 ± 11.2 years. Females to males were 62.6% vs 37.4%. Saudis represented a great proportion of the participants constituting nearly 95.2%. The mean BMI of patients was 33.6 ± 7.08 kg/m2. The mean FBG was 161.4 ± 62.9 mg/dL while the mean value of HbA1c was 8.11%±1.63%. HbA1c levels were significantly associated with DPN. Duration of DM of more than 1 year and FBG levels were significant predictors for patients to have DPN. Other socio-demographic variables such as age, gender, nationality, and BMI levels were not significantly associated with DPN.Conclusion: DPN affects 37.4% of type II diabetic patients at King Fahd University Hospital in Saudi Arabia. Approximately 60% of patients were not aware of the importance of daily foot care. Thus, foot care pamphlets were distributed to patients.
