Age at Diagnosis of Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus in Southern Iran

To obtain an estimate of the age at onset of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in southern Iran, the medical records of the confirmed diabetic patients who attended the diabetes and endocrine clinics in southern Iran from March 1984 to February 1993 were reviewed. The case records of 2566 patients, in whom non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus was considered most probable, and who were resident in southern Iran at the time of diagnosis, were studied; they included 1176 (45.8%) men and 1390 (54.2%) women. The age at diagnosis of the disease in men ranged between 18 and 82 years with a mean of 45.6 ± 11.4 (± SD) years, and in women, between 15 and 83 with a mean of 44.3 ± 12.2 (± SD) years. There was no statistically significant sex-related difference in the mean age at diagnosis of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in these patients. Sex-specific rates showed a female to male ratio of 1.25 to 1. Age-specific rates indicated that non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus was most often diagnosed before age 55 and most commonly in the forties.