Study on prevalance of diabetes mellitus in patients with T.B. under DOTS strategy

Tuberculosis is five to six times more common among diabetics than among non-diabetics and causes greater morbidity, according to reports. The effective control of each affects the control of the other. Diabetes increases the risk of developing tuberculosis, especially in developing countries with a high incidence of tuberculosis. DOTS strategy has been an effective tool on a mass basis. However, patients under DOTS are not screened for diabetes before the therapy.

To study the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in patients with tuberculosis under DOTS strategy.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in Santosh Medical College & Hospital, Ghaziabad, with the patients taken from different DOTS centres of NCR-Delhi, India. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the presence of undiagnosed diabetes under DOTS strategy. Fasting capillary blood glucose levels of patients diagnosed with tuberculosis were analyzed and were managed as per DOTS guidelines at multiple centres in the northwest region of India.

We studied 700 patients. The prevalence of diabetes was 12.6% (n=88), which is quite high. When category-wise analysis of diabetic subjects was done, it was found that patients under Category-I were 11.7% (n=47), patients under Cat-II were 15.5% (n=39) and those under Cat-III were 3.9% (n=2). The higher percentage of patients in Cat-II indicates the poor outcome of Cat-I patients, probably due to diabetes as a co-morbid disease.

The higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus in DOTS patients raises immediate concerns in preventing the morbidity due to both the diseases. Therefore, it is recommended that some strategy on the lines of HIV disease should be formed under DOTS for the concomitant treatment of TB and diabetes for better outcome and care.