Prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus among Patients in Healthcare Facilities in Ikwerre LGA, Rivers State, from 2019-2023

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is an important public health concern, but facility-level evidence from Ikwerre Local Government Area is limited. The study determined the annual and subgroup prevalence of documented diabetes mellitus among patient records in selected healthcare facilities in Ikwerre LGA from 2019 to 2023. A retrospective review of 336,820 eligible patient records identified 354 documented diabetes diagnoses. Frequencies, prevalence rates per 10,000 records, and chisquare tests were used. Results revealed that overall period prevalence was 10.5 per 10,000 records, while the unweighted mean annual rate was 11.1 per 10,000. Recorded rates were higher among males than females and among patients with formal education than those with informal education. Documented diabetes diagnoses varied by year and subgroup, but the facility-based design, changing attendance, and possible differences in screening and record completeness limit community-level inference.