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Agaju Madugba, Katsina
A report by the International Diabetes Federation has identified the South-South as leading with 9.8 per cent of the people suffering from the disease.
Diabetes melitus is a metabolic disorder characterised by either partial or absolute deficiency of insulin resulting in high glucose level in the body. About 10 million Nigerians are reported to suffer from the disease.
According to the report presented during a meeting of the Katsina branch of the Diabetes Association of Nigeria (KATS-DAN) at the weekend, the South-West comes second with 5.5 per cent prevalence rate; South-East, 4.6 per cent; North-Central, 3.8 per cent; while North-West has 3.0 per cent of diabetes patients.
The report listed some of the risk factors for diabetes to include, unhealthy diet (8 per cent), physical inactivity (4.8 per cent), old age (6.6 per cent), obesity (5.3 per cent), and cigarette smoking (4.4 per cent), among other factors.
The report noted that 72.8 of diabetes patients surveyed did not practice self-monitoring of blood glucose level, while general management of complications such as renal replacement therapy and laser coagulation were not accessible to the vast majority of patients.
