The prevalence of diabetes in a Swedish population of 280,411 inhabitants -: A report from the Skaraborg Diabetes Registry

OBJECTIVE - To estimate the prevalence of known diabetes in a Swedish county (Skaraborg) and to evaluate capture-recapture methods for validation of the diabetes prevalence. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS - Four sources were used to find known diabetic patients: 1) the Skaraborg Diabetes Registry (SDR), a case-finding inventory, 2) an administrative hospital registry, 3) a registry for the retinopathy screening program, and 4) a pharmacy prescription inventory. The capture-recapture method was applied to various combinations of sources to determine the prevalence of diabetes. RESULTS - The completeness of the SDR was 88.4 +/- 1.3%, indicating a diabetes prevalence of 3.20 +/- 0.08%. When the SDR was not used as one of the sources, the estimated prevalence varied between 2.2 and 4.5%. CONCLUSIONS - A case-finding registry is important in reliably estimating the prevalence of diabetes.