Prevalence and associated factors of painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy among diabetic patients on follow up at Jimma University Medical Center.

backgroundDespite having significant impact on the patient's quality of life, painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (PDPN) is usually underdiagnosed. Screening for PDPN in patients with diabetes is needed in order to get timely identification and management. Hence, the purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence and determinants of PDPN among diabetes patients attending outpatient at Jimma University Medical Center from September 1 November 10, 2019.

methodsHospital based cross-sectional study was conducted and douleur neuropathique-4 was used to identify the presence of PDPN. Data were collected using pretested structured questionnaire and entered into EPI data 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Both bivariate and multivariate binary logistic regression was employed to identify factors associated with PDPN. Variable having a

resultsA total of 366 diabetic patients were enrolled into the study and their mean duration of diabetes was 6.8 ± 5.3 years. The study finding showed that the prevalence of PDPN was 14.5%. According to the multivariate logistic regression analysis smoking [current smoker(AOR = 6.17; 95%CI:2.25,16.86),former smoker(AOR = 3.22;95%CI:1.29,8.03)],diabetes duration[5 to 10 years (AOR = 3.32;95%CI:1.29,8.53), ≥ 10 years (AOR = 8.86;95% CI: 3.49,22.5)] and comorbid hypertension [AOR = 2.54; 95%CI:1.17,5.49] were independent predictors of PDPN among study participants.

conclusionThe overall prevalence of PDPN in this study was 14.5% and it was significantly associated with smoking, comorbid hypertension and diabetes duration of above 5 years. Early detection and appropriate interventions are important for high risk patients identified in the current study.