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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Ibnosina Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences 2020; 12(03): 208-214
DOI: 10.4103/ijmbs.ijmbs_2_20
Original Article

Comparison between high- and low-risk diabetic patients who fast Ramadan: A prospective cohort study

Abdulwahab Elbarsha
1   Department of Medicine, Benghazi Medical Center; Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Benghazi, Benghazi, Libya
2   Department of Medicine, Benghazi Medical Center, Benghazi, Libya
,
Maisoon Elhemri
1   Department of Medicine, Benghazi Medical Center; Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Benghazi, Benghazi, Libya
,
Rafik Elmehdawi
1   Department of Medicine, Benghazi Medical Center; Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Benghazi, Benghazi, Libya
2   Department of Medicine, Benghazi Medical Center, Benghazi, Libya
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Objectives: The aim of this study is to compare the low-risk patients with the high- and very high-risk patients who choose to fast during Ramadan regarding the rates of breakfasting, hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, hospitalization, and death. Patients and Methods: This is an observational, analytic, 1-month prospective, cohort study that involved patients with diabetes mellitus who choose to fast during the month of Ramadan in the Muslim year 1437. The patients were divided into two cohorts: Cohort 1 (high-risk) consisted of 83 patients who were categorized as high/very high-risk according to the International Diabetes Federation–Diabetes and Ramadan International Alliance guidelines on diabetes and Ramadan and Cohort 2 (low-risk) consisted of 65 patients categorized as moderate/low risk. Results: The overall of whole month fasting rate was 88% (100% in the low-risk group and 79% in the high-risk group, P = 0.000), and the rate of hypoglycemia was 12% (20.9% in the high-risk group vs. 0% in the low-risk group, P = 0.002). The rate of severe hyperglycemia was 7.7% (13.5% in the high-risk group vs. 0% in the low-risk group, P = 0.14). Conclusions: Patients in the high-risk category were significantly more likely to breakfasting during Ramadan than those in the low-risk category. Hypoglycemia was significantly higher in the high-risk group. The rates of severe hyperglycemia, hospitalization, and presumed mortality were not significantly higher in the high-risk group.

Key-words:

Hypoglycemia - Ramadan fasting - risk stratification

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.




Publication History

Received: 04 January 2020

Accepted: 31 August 2020

Article published online:
14 July 2022

© 2020. The Libyan Authority of Scientific Research and Technologyand the Libyan Biotechnology Research Center. All rights reserved. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License,permitting copying and reproductionso long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, oradapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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