Verification of 2021 IDF-DAR risk assessment tool for fasting Ramadan in patients with diabetes attending primary health care in The Kingdom of Bahrain: The DAR-BAH study.

BACKGROUND

There is a high prevalence of diabetes mellitus among Muslim adult patients. Those Muslims are required to fast the holy month of Ramadan. However, the Islam religion exempted some people with medical issues. It was not clear if all the patients with diabetes were considered medically unfit to fast Ramadan. Therefore, IDF-DAR group created a new risk calculator to categorize the patients with diabetes to advise with or against fasting accordingly.

OBJECTIVE

This study is validating the IDF-DAR tool in assessing the accuracy of IDF-DAR risk calculator tool on adult patients with diabetes visiting primary health care in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The study will facilitate the health care professionals' decision to exempt the patients from fasting.

METHODS

It is a prospective, randomized study for Ramadan 1444/2023 to assess the new IDF-DAR risk score tool that predicts the complications and the negative outcome of fasting during Ramadan. It included pre- and post-Ramadan questionnaires. 757 patients were selected randomly from the patients list of the central diabetes clinics in primary health care for pre-Ramadan risk assessment scoring. Post-Ramadan a phone a questionnaire was done to evaluate the ability of fasting and the occurrence of adverse events.

RESULTS

Out of the 757 participants, 611 were included in the study. The mean age of the studied population was 59.8 years and 52.8 % of them were female. 630 (95.3 %) had type 2 diabetes. According to the new IDF-DAR risk calculator, 184 (27.8 %) were categorized as low risk (≤3 score), 252 (38.1 %) as moderate risk (3-6 score), and 225 (34 %) as high risk (>6 score). The percentage of patients completed their 30 days fasting successfully without reporting adverse events in the low, moderate, and high-risk groups were 92.4 %, 89.3 %, 74.7 % respectively. There was significant increased risk in breaking the fast between the low-risk group and high-risk group with a p-value of <0.001. Similarly, there was significant increased risk in breaking the fast between the moderate-risk group and high-risk group with p-value of <0.001. The main reason of breaking the fast was hypoglycemic attacks. The leading factors that play a significant role in increasing the risk of adverse events during fasting Ramadan were type 1 diabetes mellitus, the presence of previous hypoglycemia attacks, the presence of renal impairment, and negative previous Ramadan experience.

CONCLUSION

The new IDF-DAR risk calculator is a good tool to predict both the ability to fast Ramadan and the probability of experiencing adverse events (mainly hypoglycemia) in people with diabetes mellitus in Kingdom of Bahrain.