Burden of Diabetes Related Complications Among Hypertensive and Non Hypertensive Diabetics: A Comparative Study.
BACKGROUND
Diabetes and hypertension are the conditions with overlapping risk factors and complications. Objective of present study was to compare the burden of complications of diabetes among hypertensive and non hypertensive diabetes individuals.


METHODS
This cross-sectional study was conducted at Saveetha medical college and hospital, Chennai, India. A total of 100 diabetics having hypertension and 50 non-hypertensive diabetic patients were enrolled on the basis of purposive sampling. Information about sociodemograpic characteristics, general health, health distress, diabetes symptoms, communication with physician, healthcare utilization and lifetime occurrence of diabetes related complications. Mean, standard deviation and median of continuous variables and proportion of categorical variables were recorded.


RESULTS
Average age of the hypertensive diabetes patients (M=57; SD=11) was higher than non hypertensive diabetes patients (M=52; SD=11) which was statistically significant (p=.009). Diabetic neuropathy was reported by 45% of the hypertensive and 38% of the non-hypertensive diabetics. Mean self reported general health score was higher among hypertensive diabetic participants (M=3.4; SD=1) in comparison to non hypertensive diabetic participants (M=3; SD=1) and it was found statistically significant (p=.03) indicating towards poor self health perception among hypertensive's. Results of the study have shown that the proportion of participants who have prepared any list of questions before visiting doctor's clinic (fairly often to always) was significantly higher among hypertensive diabetics (30%) in comparison to non-hypertensive diabetics (14%).


CONCLUSIONS
The proportion of participants reporting diabetes neuropathy and retinopathy was higher among hypertensive diabetics in comparison to non hypertensive diabetics.
Final Year MBBS Student, Saveetha Young Medical Researchers Group (SYMRG), Saveetha Medical College & Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Saveetha University , Saveetha Nagar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India; Student, Operations Research in Population Health, Foundation of Healthcare Technologies Society, New Delhi, India .
Goutham
G
Kesavamoorthy
Public Health Researcher, Department of Public Health, Foundation of Healthcare Technologies Society , New Delhi, India .
Awnish K
AK
Singh
Public Health Researcher, Department of Public Health, Foundation of Healthcare Technologies Society , New Delhi, India .
Shruti
S
Sharma
Public Health Researcher, Department of Public Health, Foundation of Healthcare Technologies Society , New Delhi, India .
Jyoti Bala
JB
Kasav
Associate Professor & Vice Principal, Department of Biochemistry, Saveetha Medical College & Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Saveetha University , Saveetha Nagar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India; Research Affiliate, Department of Public Health, Foundation of Healthcare Technologies Society, New Delhi, India .
Surapaneni Krishna
SK
Mohan
Assistant Dean and Associate Professor, Department of Public Health, CUNY School of Public Health , New York, USA .
Ashish
A
Joshi
General health score; Health distress; Health information seeking behaviour