MEASURING THE PREVALENCE OF DIABETES-MELLITUS IN A GREEK PRIMARY HEALTH-CARE DISTRICT

Background. Diabetes mellitus is a common disease in developed countri es, but in Greece national figures on its prevalence are lacking. Obje ctives. The aim of this study was to identify the burden of known diab etes mellitus through its estimation in the area of responsibility of the Spill Health Centre, based on the health information system that h ad been established in Primary Health Care in rural Crete. Method. The diagnosis of diabetes was retrospectively documented by reviewing all medical records (n = 47151) at the Spill Health Centre and its five r egional outposts during the period 1/6/1988-1/7/1993. The diagnostic c riteria of WHO were used to establish the diagnosis. Results. After ex cluding the patients who had died, we found 210 patients with diabetes mellitus. Thirty cases were evaluated with OGTT because of mild but n ot diagnostic elevations of fasting plasma glucose, on more than one o ccasion. The prevalence of diabetes after age and sex standardization of that for the European population was estimated at 1.52% (1.31% in m ales and 1.68 in females). Conclusions. Our study shows that: 1) the r ole of the GPs and one appropriate information system in measuring the prevalence of known diabetes mellitus are now considered important wi thin the Greek context; 2) diabetes mellitus seems not to be a rare di sease in rural Crete. The estimated prevalence appears to be similar t o the prevalence rates reported in other areas of rural Greece.