ABSTRACT
The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of diabetes mellitus and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) among Indo-Guyanese in a village in Guyana. A house-to-house survey revealed 278 households with 736 persons above 25 years of age. Excluding known diabetics, 451 of 717 persons (62.1 percent) agreed to undergo an oral glucose tolerance test (75 g of glucose). A two-hour capillary whole blood glucose was measured by reflectance meter and those with blood glucose o 140 mg/dl were retested next day for both fasting and 2-hour blood glucose values. Persons with a fasting blood sugar o 140 mg/dl or 2-hour blood glucose o 200 mg/dl were diagnosed as diabetic; IGT was diagnosed when fasting blood glucose level was < 120 mg/dl and 2-hour sample was between 140 and 200 mg/dl. Prevalence rates for known diabetics was 5.2 percent, for newly diagnosed diabetics 6.3 percent and for IGT it was 4.3 percent. Male to female ratio in diabetics for both known and newly diagnosed cases was 1:2.7. Between 45 and 64 years of age, age-specific prevalence rates for diabetes were 12.7 percent for known and 9.77 for new cases, with corresponding increase in rate for IGT to 7.1 percent. Conclusions: Diabetes mellitus was four to five times more common and IGT was about twenty-fold higher among Indo-Guyanese than in Indians living in India. A greater female susceptibility for diabetes mellitus was also noted. Between 45 and 64 years of age, diabetes mellitus was diagnosed more often, indicating that age is an important risk factor for diabetes mellitus among Indo-Guyanese (AU)