Prevalence of Prediabetes and its Risk Factors among the Employees of Ambo University, Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Background: Prediabetes is a metabolic condition which is characterized by the presence of higher levels of blood glucose. It can be treated by lowering high blood glucose level and maintaining the healthy lifestyle habits, healthy meal plan and regular exercise. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of prediabetes and to identify the risk factors involved in its progression. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study design was adapted for the present research work. The targeted participants were adults under the age group of 35-59 years. This research included all voluntary individuals who were screened according to the guidelines of the centers for disease control and prevention (CDC). This study protocol included self-administered questionnaires; anthropometric data and blood biochemistry. A total of 380 respondents arrived at the baseline sample in which 16 subjects who had diabetes were excluded and the remaining 364 samples with normal glucose tolerance (NGT), impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) were included as the study subjects. All statistical analysis was carried out by IBM SPSS statistics 20.0 software. The recorded p values are on the basis of two-sided tests with a statistical significance of p ≤ 0.05. Results: The present study showed the higher prevalence of prediabetes with normal glucose tolerance, impaired fasting glucose and/or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) as 79.7%, 8.0%, 6.8% and 5.5% respectively. The total estimated prevalence of prediabetes was 20.3% which includes 12.6% of males and 28.2% of females. As per WHO guidelines 23.0% of pre-obese and 34.4% of obese in the target groups whose BMI ≥ 25 with their risk estimate of 2.28 (0.8-6.5) for males and 2.25 (1.03-4.9) for females are in the prediabetic groups. According to the seventh report of joint national committee (JNC) standards around 20.3% of hypertensive individuals with OR: 0.5 (0.21-1.3) for males and OR: 0.12 (0.1- 0.30) for females were in prediabetes. Sex, age, occupation, income, alcohol drinking, and elevation in modified risk factors including body mass index (BMI), waist to hip ratio (WHR), blood pressure (BP), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) were significantly associated with prediabetes. Conclusion: The present study indicated a higher prevalence of prediabetes and the effect of possible risk factors in the target population. Hence self-care should be prioritized in the community to maintain the normal BP, blood glucose, BMI and regular physical exercise.  It is highly recommended to conduct various intervention programs in the form of counseling and health education after the clients are successively screened for prediabetes. This strategy helps in the management of prediabetes and controls a huge number of people from the risk of T2DM.