Hypoglycemia unawareness index in the Indian population

Abstract

India is fast catching on, to be the world’s capital for Diabetes. With this, comes the burden of setting, and maintaining glycemic goals individually, which is seemilgly impossibe. Intensive therapy can predispose to episodes of hypoglycemia, which can infact be fearful for the individual experiencing them itself. This fear, can then hamper the ability of clinicians to assist the client, in achieving their apt glycemic goals. It\xa0is reported that a six-fold increase in deaths due to diabetes has been attributed to patients experiencing\xa0severe hypoglycemia in comparison to those not experiencing severe hypoglycemia. Repeated episodes of hypoglycemia can lead to impairment of the counter-regulatory system with the potential for development\nof hypoglycemia unawareness. 1 The lack of adequate Indian Data on Hypoglycemia unawareness incited the need for this study.\nMaterials and Methods: This prospective observational study, was conducted utilising Modified Clarke’s questionnaire. 2 After clearance from the Ethical committee of AJIMS and RC, 92 consenting subjectes were recruited.\nResults: Of the 92 participants in the study, 72 subjects were found to have hypoglycemia unawareness based on a validated questionnaire. Individuals with a higher level of education, were able to interpret their symptoms to be those of hypoglycemia. Most individuals are aware that eating something when recognizing\xa0a first sign of low sugars, will help alleviate symptoms, the next step being reducing their insulin dose.\nAlmost 40% of the study population worried about having a severe hypoglycemia in public.\n\nKeywords:\xa0Hypoglycemia,\xa0Espcecially iatrogenic.