Blood glucose distribution and prevalence of diabetes in Hanoi (Vietnam).

Few epidemiologic surveys have been performed to assess the prevalence of diabetes in representative samples, and few data are available on the epidemiologic features of diabetes in Southeast Asia. We report the results of a 1990 study performed in the Hanoi area (Vietnam) on 4,912 subjects (95.0% of the eligible population), aged 15 years or over, selected by a stratified random cluster procedure using the 1989 census list. A two-step design was used: 1) screening for diabetes by measuring capillary blood glucose (CBG) before dinner with a Glucometer II device; and 2) for subjects with a CBG measurement of > or = 105 mg/dl, a diagnostic test on the following morning, using a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test and World Health Organization criteria (93.9% of the positive screenees took this test). CBG values before dinner were unimodally distributed and skewed to the right, increasing with age in both sexes. Women had a significantly higher level of age-adjusted CBG than did men before dinner (p < 0.0001) as well as when fasting (p < 0.0001) and 2 hours after the oral glucose tolerance test (p = 0.013). The prevalence of diabetes was 1.2% (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.9-1.5) and of impaired glucose tolerance, 1.6% (95% CI 1.3-2.0). Women had a significantly higher age-adjusted prevalence of diabetes than did men (relative risk = 2.3; 95% CI 1.3-4.1). Of the 63 diabetic subjects, nine (14.3%) had been diagnosed before the study, only one was obviously insulin dependent, and only one was obese with a body mass index of > or = 27 kg/m2. The subjects living in the urban areas had higher levels of fasting and 2-hour CBG and a higher diabetes prevalence than did the rural inhabitants (relative risk = 1.3; 95% CI 1.04-3.23). Diabetes appears to be a rare disease in the Hanoi area (1.4% for subjects aged 30-64 years, after age standardization using the Segi distribution), affecting women two times as often as men. Typical insulin-dependent (type I) or obese non-insulin-dependent (type II) diabetes mellitus patients are uncommon.