Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a global health concern of major public health importance affecting people of all ages, including adolescents. The prevalence of diabetes has continued to rise significantly among young individuals. And the incidence of type 2 diabetes is increasing more rapidly in adolescents and young adults than in other age groups and in some regions more type 2 than type 1 diabetes mellitus is being diagnosed in prepubertal children, teenagers, and young adults.

Objective: This is to to determine 10 year risk of developing type 2 DM using an interviewer administered Finland Diabetic Risk Score (FINDRISC score) among secondary school students age 10-19 years.

Method: This is a cross-sectional study conducted among 1067 students from three secondary school age 10-19 years selected using a multistage sampling from 72 public secondary schools. Four risk factors for diabetes were assessed, namely, overweight/obesity, impaired fasting blood glucose (IFG), hypertension and family history of diabetes. Data was analyzed using SPSS.

Result: Overall the prevalence of one or more DM risk factors is about 15%, 3% of the students were overweight/obese, 3% were also had impaired blood glucose. 10% had family history of DM and 2% were hypertensive. Logistics recession analysis shows that female students were 30% less likely to be at risk of DM compared to their male counterpart. Students not taking fruits and vegetable everyday had 37% odds of having DM risks compared to those taking daily and those who did not engage in daily exercise had 17% increased risks of DM although not statistically significant.

Conclusion: The significant risk factors identified in this study were family history of DM, oveweight/obesity, hypertension and impaired fasting blood glucose. Early screening for diabetic risks in younger school children could lead to to early detection of diabetes and its risks