Age and Gender-Related Variations in Comorbidities among Diabetes Patients—A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Diabetes is a pandemic disease; co-existence of several chronic diseases with diabetes is an important challenge around the world. However, sociodemographic variations in diabetes with other comorbidities are poorly understood in our region. We sought to describe age and gender differences in prevalence and pattern of comorbidities among diabetes mellitus (DM) patients. Methodology: A population based cross-sectional study was conducted among residents of Gulshan town, Karachi, Pakistan. Data of healthy individuals and those having diabetes with any chronic condition were recorded. All self-reported chronic conditions including DM were further assessed based on physical examinations, history of medicines use and on laboratory findings. For analysis, individuals were grouped into following categories (1) healthy individual (those who have No Disease) (2) DM patients (3) DM with one comorbidity (4) DM with two comorbidities (5) DM with three or more comorbidities. Results: A total 2968 participants were recruited in this study. DM was present in 685 (23.1%) participants. The most commonly co-occurring chronic conditions with DM were Hypertension (14.8%), Obesity (7.9%) and Depression (6.5%). Women were 34% less likely to have diabetes with one-comorbidity (aOR 0.66, 95% CI 0.45-0.96) but more likely to have 3 or more comorbidities (aOR 2.32, 95% CI 1.61-3.33) than men. Older age was also significantly associated to DM with comorbidities, individuals who aged ≥60 years were significantly more likely to have DM with 3+ comorbidities (aOR 5.47, 95% CI 3.07-9.75) compared to younger age group of 30-39 years. Conclusion: Risk factors like diabetes alone was considerably higher in 40-49 years old patients, diabetes +1 comorbidity in male gender and patients with moderate physical activity, diabetes +2 comorbidities in Pashtun ethnic while diabetes +3 comorbidities were found considerably higher among females gender. Disclosure F. Uddin: None. S. Zaheer: None. K. Shafique: None.