Risk Factors for Diabetic Nephropathy Among Non Insulin Dependent Patients Who Attended City Hall's Staff Clinic in Kuala Lumpur

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus and its main complication, nephropathy, affects the economic wellbeing and quality of life of the sufferers and the population. A matched case control study was conducted in September 1998 to investigate the factors involved with nephropathy such as diabetic control, smoking, hypertension, family history of diabetes and diabetic duration. Respondents were classified based on the presence of microalbuminuria or macroalbuminuria. Seventy-two pairs of case and control were studied. Duration of diabetes (p = 0.005), presence of lethargy and weakness prior to diabetes diagnosis (p = 0.019), duration of smoking (p = 0.014), duration of hypertension (p= 0.000), systolic hypertension (p= 0.025), uncontrolled diabetes with poor HbAlc level (p= 0.026) and lack of diabetes knowledge (p = 0.037) were factors which related significantly to nephropathy by univariate analysis. In multivariate analysis, systolic hypertension (p = 0.0015), lack of diabetes knowledge (p = 0.0197), presence of lethargy symptom (p = 0.0027), prolonged diabetic duration (p = 0.0301) and higher body mass indices ( p = 0.0213) were predictors to diabetic nephropathy.