Diabetes mellitus en adultos mexicanos. Resultados de la Encuesta Nacional de Salud 2000

Abstract

Objective. To show the prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) and its associated factors in adults, using data derived from the 2000 National Health Survey (NHS). Material and Methods. The 2000 NHS was conducted between November 1999 and June 2000. An adult questionnaire was administered to 45 294 subjects 20 years of age and older. Capillary glucose levels, weight, height and blood pressure were obtained. Individual weighted factors were considered in the statistical analysis, as was the survey's complex sampling design to obtain variances using SUDAAN 7.5.6. Results. The national prevalence of DM in adults ages 20 years and older was 7.5% (95% CI: 7.1-7.9). The prevalence was 7.8% in women and 7.2% in men. It was higher according to age: 2.3% in adults 40 years or younger and 21.2% in those older than 60 years of age. In the urban population, prevalence was 8.1% and in the rural population it was 6.5%. The disease was more frequent in the northern region of the country (8.4%) and in the Mexico City metropolitan area (8.1%). DM was more frequent in the population with the least amount of schooling (9.9%), the lowest income (8.1%), high blood pressure (13.7%), hypercholesterolemia (23.3%) microalbuminuria (15.5%) and renal disease (12.3%). Using multivariate logistic regression, stratified by gender, variables associated with DM were identified: age, little schooling, family history of DM, high blood pressure, renal disease or hypercholesterolemia in both genders. Abdominal obesity was associated with DM in women only and living in an urban area was associated with DM only in men. The highest associations were observed with age, family history of DM, and microalbuminuria. Conclusion. Results from the 2000 NHS show that DM represents a serious public health problem in Mexico. The impact increases when DM affects populations with social or economic factors that limit access to treatment. Data reported in this paper are useful to the implementation of screening and prevention programs. These results confirm that DM should be screened in first-degree family members and everyone who has one or more metabolic syndrome components (high blood pressure, dyslipidemia, obesity and microalbuminuria).