Publication:

Diabetes registry and service in Nigerian suburban-based tertiary healthcare facility

Background Diabetes register is a clinical tool necessary for patient management including follow-up and referral procedures. In the Bringing Research in Diabetes to Global Environments and Systems that is in progress in Delta State, Nigeria; part of focus is establishment of diabetes register at a tertiary health facility. This phase of the project aimed to establish a diabetes register and to assess the baseline data.

Methods This was a clinical observational descriptive study at Eku Baptist Government Hospital. The diabetes register developed as in previous report was adopted as a scale-up study. After due clearance from the hospital, patients’ hospital record files were screened for cases of diabetes and 70 files were identified. Data were analyzed descriptively using Microsoft Excel Data Analysis ToolPak 2010.

Results There was a 2/1 female/male ratio, while 6% were below 40 years. 90% of patients had blood glucose levels results that indicated poor diabetes control. There is problem of incomplete data collection, for instance <25% BMI data was available. Capability and opportunity for standard service, e.g. diabetic foot examination, lipid profile, renal and retinal assessment was available at the tertiary health facility to allow management and referral from other hospitals.

Conclusions This report highlights poor adherence to diabetes care practices by stakeholders. It underscores the need for motivation to improve the quality of clinical data collection vis-à-vis documentation that enables assessment of diabetes epidemiology, especially in a facility that has the capacity.