Prevalence and Risk Factors for Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy in Type 2 Diabetic Patients From 14 Countries: Estimates of the INTERPRET-DD Study

Aim: Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is a common, severe microvascular complication of diabetes. Our study was to assess prevalence and risk factors for DPN in subjects with type 2 diabetes from 14 different countries.

Methods: A total of 2,733 subjects with type 2 diabetes aged 18–65 years (45.3% men, mean duration of diabetes = 8.8 years) were included to perform this International Prevalence and Treatment of Diabetes and Depression (INTERPRET-DD) study in 14 countries. After a structured questionnaire was used in face-to-face interviews to collect sociodemographic characteristics and medical records of the participating subjects, laboratory tests were carried out for clinical measurement. Depressive symptoms were diagnosed and measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. The potential risk factors for DPN were determined by multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression, accounting for clustering of participants within the country. Robustness of the estimates was assessed by sensitivity analysis.

Results: The overall prevalence of DPN across different countries was 26.71%, whereas country-specific prevalences showed considerable variation. Multivariate analysis revealed that duration of diabetes (OR: 1.08 per 1-year increase, 95% CI: 1.06–1.09), poor glycemic control (OR: 1.11 per 1% increase in HbA1c, 95% CI: 1.05–1.18), and history of hypertension (OR: 1.58, 95% CI: 1.18–2.12), cardiovascular disease (OR: 2.07, 95% CI: 1.55–2.78) and depressive symptoms (OR: 1.92, 95% CI: 1.43–2.58) were independently and positively associated with the risk of DPN. Sensitivity analyses including or excluding patients from countries with extreme low or high prevalence of DPN yielded similar estimates in terms of trend and magnitude.

Conclusions: This international study illustrates that more than a quarter of individuals with type 2 diabetes developed DPN. The prevalence was positively associated with the duration of diabetes, poor glycemic control, and history of hypertension, cardiovascular disease and depressive symptoms.