Diabetes and Diabetic Nursing Care

Hypoglycemia as a management complication of diabetes mellitus (DM) is a worldwide experience. In Africa, hypoglycemia is an uncharted territory in literature. Th erefore, the following questions will be addressed using Ademolu’s Classifi cation of Hypoglycemia (ACH). Which is the commonest and the least common grade of hypoglycemia in D M African patients? Which grade of hypoglycemia is seen commonly in type 1 and in type 2 diabetics? Th is is a retrospective study that analyses 203 (two hundred and three) documented hypoglycemic episodes in Africans with DM admitted between July 2007 and October 2016 in Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Lagos Nigeria using a questionnaire on 50 case fi les studied. Hypoglycemia was defi ned as a blood sugar of 70 mg/dl or less. Th e age range of the patients was 18 to 95 years. Now, by using ACH to analyze the 203 hypoglycemic episodes in all type 2 diabetics studied, 48.50% had grade l hypoglycemia, 35.93% had grade 2 hypoglycemia while 15.57% had grade 3 hypoglycemia. In all type 1 DM studied, 30.50% had grade 1, 33.33% had grade 2 while 36.11% had grade 3 hypoglycemia. The lowest documented hypoglycemia amongst type 2 DM was an asymptomatic fasting blood sugar of 20 mg/dl (grade 3 hypoglycemia). By using ACH, there was no record of grade 4 hypoglycemia in both type 1 and type 2 DM patients in this African study. The commonest grade is grade 1 (mild) in type 2 DM, whereas grade 3 (severe) is the commonest in type 1 DM. Th e least common grade of hypoglycemia in type 2 DM is grade 3 while in type 1 DM, it is grade 1. Asymtomatic hypoglycemia can occur in grade 3 among African diabetics. A similar study is recommended in Americans, Europeans, Asians and all ethnic groups for possible racial diff erences or disparity in the fi ndings of this research.