Objectives: To describe a type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM1) population with regard to demographic, socioeconomic, environmental and management aspects. Design: Series of cases. Participants: 126 DM1 patients, aged up to 30 yrs, with no more than 10 yrs of diagnosis, living in some cities of South Brazil. Results: The patients were 57 men and 69 women, being the age of onset mainly at 11-15 yrs (31%). There were seasonal presentations at diagnosis. The diagnosis of DM was done as outpatients, by symptoms in 61%, due to hospitalization in 22% and ketoacidosis in 18%. Forty-seven percent of the sample injected insulin once daily, 60% of patients performed some self monitoring, one third reused the same syringe six or more times and 50% of insulin was provided by public services. Regarding awareness of hypoglycaemia, 18% of the patients did not know any signal of alert. A significant part of the sample was seen by a specialist in DM (73%). Among the patients with five years or more of DM, 16% of them have never had their eyes examined and 17% had been examined at least two years ago. The onset of DM, assistance by a specialist and provision of insulin was associated with familiar income. Women were on diet more often (p= 0,05) and had more self-injection of insulin (p= 0,01) than men. Conclusions: In this study, socio-economic factors seem to influence the onset of DM, provision of insulin and assistance by a specialist doctor in DM. In general, patients did not have background and skills for self-management of DM.
Type 1 diabetes mellitus; Epidemiology; Socioeconomic factors; Demographic factors
