Glycaemic control in native Kuwaiti Arab patients with type 2 diabetes.

AIMS: To evaluate the influence of age at diabetes diagnosis, diabetes duration, BMI, comorbidity with hypertension and medication regimen on glycaemic control in native Kuwaiti Arab patients with T2D.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study considered 7657 patients from Kuwait Diabetes Registry and analysed data from their laboratory and hospital records.

RESULTS: HbA1c and prevalence of hypertension increased significantly with diabetes duration. Duration of diabetes (β=0.034; P<0.001) and age at diagnosis (β=-0.03; P<0.001) were independently associated with HbA1c. Inadequate glycaemic control was more likely in patients diagnosed at <60 than in those ≥60 years of age (OR:1.80, 95%-CI:1.39-2.31). Increasing duration of diabetes witnessed decrease in metformin prescription and increase in sulfonylureas prescription; proportion of patients treated with insulin increased from 5.6% to 44.4% in 9 years of diagnosis. Patients with 9-years duration of diabetes or with combination therapy of insulin-metformin-sulfonylureas differed in mean BMI for adequate or inadequate glycaemic control (29.5 versus 31.2kg/m2 ; P<0.001 and 29.8 versus 33.2; P<0.01, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: Only 25.6% of the T2D patients in this ethnic cohort exhibited adequate glycaemic control. The delineated relationship of inadequate glycaemic control with diabetes duration, onset age, obesity and hypertension prevalence has a bearing on diabetes management programs for Arabs.