Prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus and risk of hypertension and coronary artery disease in rural and urban population with low rates of obesity

Objective: To compare the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and coronary artery disease (CAD) and hypertension in DM in the rural and urban populations of north India. Design and methods: Two populations of the same ethnic background were randomly selected for this cross sectional survey. There were 1769 rural (894 men, 875 women) and 1806 urban subjects (904 men, 902 women) between 25-64 years of age. The survey methods included fasting and 2 h blood glucose and electro-cardiogram and blood pressure measurement of all subjects. Results: Using the criteria of World Health Organization, the prevalence of diabetes mellitus (6.0 vs 2.8%) hypertension (24.0 vs 17.0%) and CAD (9.0 vs 3.2%) was significantly (P<0.001) higher in urban compared to rural subjects. Hypertension and CAD were significantly more frequent among subjects with diabetes compared to nondiabetes, The association of CAD and hypertension with diabetes was greater in urban than rural subjects. Excess body weight and obesity, central obesity, sedentary lifestyle, higher visible fat intake (>25 g/day), and social class 1-3 (higher and middle) were significantly associated with diabetes. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that after adjustment of age and sex, body mass index, central obesity, sedentary lifestyle and higher visible fat intake and alcohol intake in men were significant risk factors of diabetes among all the sub-groups. Conclusions: The study showed a high prevalence of diabetes in urban north Indian population compared to rural subjects in the same ethnic group, CAD and hypertension were significantly associated with diabetes more in urban than rural subjects. The findings suggest that higher body mass index, waist-hip ratio and visible fat intake and sedentary lifestyle were risk factors of diabetes. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.