RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: The prevalence of diabetes mellitus in Latin America is not well known. AIM: To study the real prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) and its associated risk factors in the VII region of Chile. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A probabilistic sample of 1,325 subjects over the age of 20, stratified by age and differentiated by place of residence was studied. The criteria of the World Panel of Experts convened by the World Health Organization in 1997, was used to define the presence of diabetes (two fasting blood glucose values over 126 mg/dl or a blood glucose over 200 mg/dl, 2 hours after a 75 g carbohydrate oral load). RESULTS: The global prevalence estimated for DM in this population was 5.39%. The calculated prevalence in subjects between 20 and 44 years was 1.88% (CI 0.39-3.37); between 45 and 64 years, 10.75% (CI 8.35-13.14); 65 years or older 11.30% (CI 8.00-14.60), p < 0.05. The prevalence was 5.8% in urban areas and 4.5% in rural areas. Forty five percent of diabetics were not aware of their condition. Forty eight percent of diabetics and 31% of non diabetics were hypertensive (p < 0.01), whereas 47.8% of diabetics and 24.6% of non diabetics had at least one diabetic parent (p < 0.01). Smoking was less frequent in diabetics than in non diabetics (15.7 and 24.3% respectively, p < 0.05). Ninety percent of both diabetics and non diabetics were sedentary. DISCUSSION: Health care systems require an epidemiological monitoring system to provide information about the prevalence of diabetes mellitus and to control the evolution of patients.