DIABETES MELLITUS AMONG INDIANS OF THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST: ITS PREVALENCE AND CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS IN A HOSPITALIZED POPULATION

Abstract

The prevalence of diabetes mellitus was detd. among 16,296 consecutive admissions over a 2-yr. period to hospital facilities of the Phoenix Area of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The case-admission rates were: overall 1.5% male, 1.4%, female, 1.6%. Diabetic coma was not recorded and need for metabolic regulation was infrequent as a cause for admission. Obesity was common, and in other respects the clinical characteristics of this disorder as observed in these patients recalled the "maturity-onset" type of diabetes descr. by others. A definite increase in prevalence of diabetes among hospital admissions of Indians with tuberculosis was noted. Conditions complicating diabetes were common and could be related to the known duration of the primary disorder; The prevalence of diabetes and its natural history as observed in these Indians support Joslin''s thesis of the universality of this disease.