Diabetic Mortality in N’Djamena

Introduction : The diabetes pandemic is classified as the eighth leading cause of death in both sexes and the fifth leading cause of death in women. The aim of this study was to determine diabetes-related mortality in the hospital setting. Method: this was a descriptive study, based on the records of diabetic patients who died in hospital in the various departments of the “National Reference” University Hospital of N’Djamena, from January 2015 to December 2019 (i.e. 5 years). The variables studied were epidemiological, clinical, paraclinical, therapeutic and evolutionary. Data analysis was performed using SPSS.25 software. Results: During the study period, 1282 deaths occurred, 185 of them due to diabetes, i.e. a prevalence of 15.85%. The mean age of patients was 57.24 years (extremes 18 and 88 years). The age group most affected was 40 to 60, with 82 patients (44.3%). The patients were predominantly male (sex ratio 1.56). Their socio-economic level was average in 52.4% (97 cases) and low in 40.5% (75 cases). Type 2 diabetes accounted for 91% (168 patients) and type 1 for 09% (17 patients). Reasons for hospitalization were metabolic complications (23.78%), followed by hypertensive crises (13.51%) and cerebrovascular accidents (08.11%). The risk factors most frequently associated with diabetes were hypertension (57.90%), dyslipidemia (31.35%) and alcohol (22.30%). Complications associated with death were dominated by nephropathy (63.3%) and metabolic complications (61.1%). More patients died in intensive care (58.91%) than in cardiology (16.90%). Conclusion: Diabetes-related mortality in hospitals remains very high, which is why we need to step up awareness-raising to reduce diabetes-related deaths.