Prevalence of Diabetes and Associated Health Risk Factors among Adults in Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Results from Dubai Household Survey 2019

Background: The health and social burdens of diabetes mellitus (DM) are steadily increasing worldwide, reflecting the impact of urbanization, industrial transitions, and shifting to nonhealthy, sedentary life patterns’, as well as the high sugar, low-fiber food consumptions. All these factors have contributed to the global increase in the prevalence of DM and metabolic disorders. Objectives: The objective is to study the prevalence of DM among adult cohorts in Dubai and the extent of behavioral health risk factors associations. Methodology: A cross-sectional household health survey with multistage, stratified cluster random sample of 9,630 participants including 2,496 households was carried out in Dubai 2019. About 5,371 non-United Arab Emirates (UAE) national, 2,245 UAE-nationals, of different age-groups, gender, education, nationality, smoking, and marital status were included in the survey. The survey questionnaire was adapted from the one used in the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Surveys (LSMSs) and the WHO’s World Health Surveys (WHSs). Self-reported diabetes was considered as well as newly diagnosed diabetes based on HbA1C results. About 75 well-trained surveyors, 25 well-trained nurses, and other laboratory technicians conducted the survey. SPSS 21 and Stata 12 software was used for data management. Results: The data indicate that the prevalence of diabetes among Dubai Emiratis is much higher than Dubai expats (19.3 vs. 12.4% p = 0.000). The association between diabetes and age was evident regardless of nationality. Rates of diabetes were higher in males (15.4%) compared to females (11.8%) (p < 0.001). About 11.2% of those considered overweight have DM, while the prevalence is 21.5% in obese people (p = 0.000). Physical inactivity, smoking, and hypertension (HTN) were strongly associated with higher rates of DM. Regardless of nationality, lower levels of education were statistically significantly associated with the prevalence of DM (p = 0.000), while single marital status was associated with the lowest rate of DM. Conclusions: Dubai household health survey 2019 indicated that the prevalence of DM among Dubai adults was still high as an overall estimation. Higher rates of diabetes were significantly associated with Emirati nationality, older age-groups, male gender, physical inactivity, high BMI, HTN, smoking, marital status of divorced, separated or divorced as well as low educational level groups.