Neurological Features and Their Association With Gender in Diabetes Mellitus Patients

Muhammad Mubeen; Ahsan Masood; Muhammad Ulusyar Khan; Hira Khalid Chohan; Aisha Jamal; Musarat Khalid Chohan; Sadaf Sattar Abbassey; Adnan Anwar; Atif A Hashmi

doi:10.7759/cureus.39687

Neurological Features and Their Association With Gender in Diabetes Mellitus Patients

Cureus. 2023 May 30;15(5):e39687. doi: 10.7759/cureus.39687. eCollection 2023 May.

Authors

Muhammad Mubeen¹, Ahsan Masood², Muhammad Ulusyar Khan³, Hira Khalid Chohan⁴, Aisha Jamal⁵, Musarat Khalid Chohan⁶, Sadaf Sattar Abbassey⁷, Adnan Anwar^{8

9}, Atif A Hashmi¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Internal Medicine, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, PAK.
² Internal Medicine, Gomel State Medical University, Gomel, BLR.
³ Internal Medicine, Bolan University of Medical and Health Sciences, Quetta, PAK.
⁴ General Surgery, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, PAK.
⁵ Internal Medicine, Army Medical College, Rawalpindi, PAK.
⁶ Anaesthesiology, Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Karachi, PAK.
⁷ Family Medicine, Sindh Services Hospital, Karachi, PAK.
⁸ Physiology, Hamdard College of Medicine and Dentistry, Karachi, PAK.
⁹ Internal Medicine, Essa General Hospital, Karachi, PAK.
¹⁰ Pathology, Liaquat National Hospital and Medical College, Karachi, PAK.

Abstract

Introduction Understanding the wide range of clinical signs and symptoms associated with diabetes mellitus (DM) is crucial because people with DM are frequently misdiagnosed, given incorrect care, or poorly controlled. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the neurological symptoms associated with type 1 and type 2 DM patients with respect to patient gender. Methods This was a cross-sectional multicenter study that was conducted at different hospitals using a non-probability sampling method. The duration of the study was eight months, from January 2022 to August 2022. The study involved 525 type 1 and type 2 DM patients with an age range from 35 to 70 years. Demographic details such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, past medical history, presence of comorbidities, type, and duration of DM, and neurological features were recorded as frequencies and percentages. A Chi-square test was used to determine the association between neurological symptoms associated with type 1 and type 2 DM and gender. Results The study findings showed that of 525 diabetic patients, 210 (40.0%) were females and 315 (60.0%) were males. The mean male and female mean ages were 57.36±14.99 and 50.52±14.8 years, respectively, with a significant difference with respect to gender (p<0.001). The prevalence of neurological manifestations showed that irritability or mood swings were reported by most of the male 216 (68.6%) and 163 (77.6%) female diabetic patients, with a significant association noticed (p=0.022). Moreover, a significant association was observed between both genders in terms of swelling of feet, ankles, hands, and eyes (p=0.042), confusion or difficulty in concentration (p=0.040), burning pain in feet or legs (p=0.012), and muscular pain or cramps in legs or feet (p=0.016). Conclusion This study concluded that the prevalence of neurological manifestations was high among diabetic patients. Most of the neurological symptoms were significantly more pronounced in female diabetic patients. Moreover, most of the neurological symptoms were associated with the type (type 2 DM) and duration of DM. The presence of hypertension, dyslipidemia, and smoking also influenced some neurological manifestations.

Keywords: diabetes type 2; gender; swelling and burning; tingling or numbness; type 1 diabetes.