RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Being a leading cause of death worldwide, epidemiological studies about diabetes mellitus have encouraged governments to initiate or improve local diabetes monitoring and prevention strategies. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study was to examine the profile of diabetic patients in the city of Misurata, the third largest city in Libya. METHODS: 260 diabetic cases of both gender randomly selected from the total number of patients admitted to the centre of diabetes and endocrine disorders, Misurata -Libya for the period between January to March 2008. Data collected from patients' files and by directly questioning the patients. SPSS software version 13 was used for the statistical analysis and presentation of the data. RESULTS: 87% of all patients were type 2 diabetics, while only 9.9% were type 1. 73% of all patients had family history of diabetes. 52% of all diabetic patients were obese, with more obesity in females (70% of females) than males (33.8% of males). Obesity was more pronounced in type 2 patients (56.8%) than in type 1 patients (11.5%). 38% of all patients were treated with insulin while 35.4% were treated with oral hypoglycemics. Meanwhile 32.6% of type 2 diabetic patients were treated with insulin. Only 9.2% of all patients had fasting blood sugar below 140 mg/dl, whereas 55% had levels in the range of 140-180 mg/dl, while 35.8% had levels above 180 mg/dl. Microvascular complications included retinopathy (16.2% of all patients), neuropathy (11.2%), nephropathy (1.5%) and combination of neuropathy and retinopathy (6.5%). CONCLUSION: High percentage of risk factors including obesity, family history of diabetes, hypertension and microvascular complications requires a Libyan national policy for the surveillance, prevention and control of diabetes and its complications.