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Prevalence of self-reported symptoms attributed to hypoglycaemia within a general female population of the UK
Elizabeth J Simpson1, Michelle Holdsworth, Ian A Macdonald
1School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Nottingham, UK. liz.simpson@nottingham.ac.uk
Objective:
To investigate the prevalence of symptoms attributed to hypoglycaemia that are reported by a general female population of the UK.
Method:
A health and well-being questionnaire, including questions relating to symptoms of low blood 'sugar', medical history and anthropometry, was administered by post to 2000 randomly selected women (17-50 years) in Nottinghamshire. To avoid biasing responses, participants were not made aware of the specific focus of the study.
Results:
One thousand one hundred and thirty-six women returned the questionnaire (56.8% response rate). After exclusions, 37.9% of respondents reported symptoms that they attributed to hypoglycaemia, with a median of four episodes reported per month. A significant variation in the reporting of symptoms was found across body mass index (BMI) categories, with the highest prevalence of symptomatic subjects being found at the lowest BMI range (P<.05).
Conclusion:
More than a third of women in the UK report experiencing symptoms that they attribute to hypoglycaemia. Body mass index appears to be related to the experiencing of symptoms.
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