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Fasting with diabetes: a prospective observational study
  1. Muhammad Jawad Noon1,
  2. Haseeb Ahmad Khawaja2,
  3. Osama Ishtiaq3,
  4. Quratulain Khawaja4,
  5. Sana Minhas4,
  6. Asfandyar Khan Niazi1,
  7. Abdul Mannan Khan Minhas1,
  8. Umar Rasool Malhi4
  1. 1Shifa College of Medicine, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad, Pakistan
  2. 2Bronson Lakeview Family Care - Internal Medicine, Paw Paw, Michigan, USA
  3. 3Department of Endocrinology, Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad, Pakistan
  4. 4Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad, Pakistan
  1. Correspondence to Dr Muhammad Jawad Noon; jawadnoon{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Objectives To determine the proportion of diabetic patients who develop adverse glycaemic events when fasting regularly.

Design Prospective observational study conducted at a tertiary care hospital in South Asia. Five hundred and twenty-three patients were assessed for eligibility, and 150 were included in the final analysis. Diabetic patients over 18 years of age who were willing to fast regularly and make a chart of their daily blood sugar levels were included in the study. The main outcome measures were hypoglycaemic and hyperglycaemic events. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for quantitative variables, while mean±SD were documented for qualitative variables. Relative risk was calculated as a measure of association.

Results Of a total of 150 individuals, 10% experienced hypoglycaemia, while 3.3% reported hyperglycaemic episodes. Only 8.7% of the participants discontinued one or more fasts; however, none of them required hospitalisation. There is a negative association between a visit to a physician by diabetic patients before they begin to fast regularly and the risk of developing hypoglycaemia (relative risk 0.73).

Conclusions Many diabetic patients who fast regularly are at high risk of adverse glycaemic events. Most diabetics do not consult their physicians before fasting to adjust medications and lifestyle. Various strategies should be planned and implemented for the awareness and education of such patients to avoid adverse glycaemic events and subsequent complications.

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

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