Abstract:
Objective: To assess the prevalence of diabetes
mellitus (DM) and associated factors among HIVinfected adults in northwest Ethiopia.
Design: Hospital-based cross-sectional study.
Setting: HIV clinic of the University of Gondar
Hospital, Ethiopia.
Participants: All HIV-infected adults who visited the
HIV clinic from December 2013 to the end of February
2014 were the source population.
Measures: A structured and pretested questionnaire
incorporating the WHO STEPwise approach was used.
A multivariate logistic regression analysis was applied
to assess factors associated with DM.
Results: The overall prevalence of type 2 DM was 8%
(95% CI 5.5% to 10.5%). The prevalence of DM was
higher (13.2%; 95% CI 8.0% to 18.3%) among
subjects receiving pre-antiretroviral treatment (preART) than among those taking ART (5.1%; 95% CI
2.6% to 7.6%). Thirteen (35.1%) of the DM cases
were newly identified during the study. Obesity
(adjusted OR (AOR) 6.55; 1.20 to 35.8), hypertension
(AOR 3.45; 1.50 to 7.90), being in the pre-ART group
(AOR 4.47; 1.80 to 11.08), hypertriglyceridaemia (AOR
2.24; 1.02 to 49.5) and tertiary-level education (AOR
11.8; 2.28 to 61.4) were associated with DM.
Conclusions: Overall DM prevalence was high,
particularly among subjects in the pre-ART group. More
educated, hypertensive and obese HIV-infected adults
were more likely to have DM as a comorbidity. Health
policy and the clinical management of HIV-infected
individuals should take into account the rising DM
