Saqqummersitaq

Aim: The objective of this study was to estimate and compare between Greenlanders and non-Greenlanders living in Nuuk the proportion of patients with type 2 diabetes with microvascular complications.

Methods: This study was performed as a cross-sectional register study based on information in the Electronic Medical Record (EMR). All patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and with permanent addresses in Nuuk were included. Patients born in Greenland were considered to be Greenlanders, while patients born outside Greenland were considered as non-Greenlanders. Proportions of patients with retinopathy, microalbuminuria, nephropathy and neuropathy were estimated based on information from the EMR.

Results: A total of 393 patients (295 Greenlanders and 98 non-Greenlanders) were included. In total 83.0% of all patients have been screened for retinopathy, while 66.4% were screened for microalbuminuria and 64.6% for neuropathy within a two year period. The most frequent microvascular complication was neuropathy, which was observed among half (49.6%) of all patients followed by microalbuminuria (28.4%), retinopathy (10.7%) and nephropathy (7.3%). Retinopathy was observed among 21.4% of the non-Greenlanders compared to only 7.0% of the Greenlanders (p = .001). Microalbuminuria was also observed more frequently (p = .047) among non-Greenlanders (37.5%) than among Greenlanders (24.9%).

Conclusion: Greenlanders seem to be less prone to especially retinopathy than are non-Greenlanders.