TYPES OF DIABETES TREATMENT IN A TOTAL, NORWEGIAN, ADULT-POPULATION -THE NORD-TRONDELAG-DIABETES-STUDY

Objectives. To describe types of diabetes treatment in a total, adult population, including those on no antidiabetic medication, and to eval uate use of the defined daily doses in estimation of diabetes prevalen ce. Design. Cross-sectional epidemiologic survey applying patient-base d questionnaires and clinical examinations approaching all inhabitants of greater than or equal to 20 years (85100). Setting. Nord-Trondelag county in the middle part of Norway. Subjects. All known diabetic pat ients in the county (2242) amongst all participants of greater than or equal to 20 years (76855), registered in 1984-86. Interventions. Ques tionnaire data on type of diabetes treatment including drug doses, mea surement of height and weight. Main outcome measures. Distribution of types of treatment and of mean drug doses. Results. Of the diabetic pa tients of greater than or equal to 20 years of age, 20% used insulin, 39% oral hypoglycaemic agents and 41% no antidiabetic medication. Corr esponding prevalence figures were 0.6%, 1.1% and 1.2%. Mean daily insu lin dose per kg body weight was significantly higher in women than in men. Women with no antidiabetic medication stated a more restricted di et than men. The mean prescribed insulin dose was 14% higher than the defined daily dose, but the corresponding oral agent dose was lower th an the defined daily dose. Conclusions. Sales figures is a bad estimat e of total diabetes prevalence due to the high proportion of diabetic patients using no antidiabetic medication. Correction is also necessar y when the defined daily dose system is used to estimate the prevalenc e of medically treated diabetes.