The pattern of diabetes in a primary health care setting in Singapore

This is a study of Diabetes mellitus and its treatment in a single doctor government primary health care clinic in Singapore. Data was collected on the entire 349 patients with diabetes attending this clinic over a three month period in 1987. We found there was an increasing number of diabetics with age and a substantial proportion was above 70 years of age. Only 7% had their diabetes treated with diet alone and 9.6% were treated with insulin. Most (61%) patients were on tolbutamide, with 17.6% on glibenclamide and 5.9% on chlorpropamide. Hypertension was found in 38% of the diabetic patients but was not associated with increase in age of the patient. The duration of diabetes, but not the age of the patient, was positively associated with the number of drugs taken by the patient (chi-squared, p less than 0.05).