Awareness of the diagnosis, treatment, and control of diabetes mellitus in Brazil

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the proportions of awareness, treatment, and control of diabetes mellitus (DM) in the Brazilian adult population. METHOD: This is a cross-sectional study, with data from a representative sample of the Brazilian population, taken from the National Health Survey(PNS 2014/2015). Outcomes were defined based on glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) measurements, self-reported DM diagnosis, and use of hypoglycemic agents or insulin. The proportion of DM awareness, treatment, and control was estimated according to sociodemographic characteristics, health conditions, and access to health services, and their respective 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: DM prevalence in the Brazilian population was of 8.6% (95%CI: 7.8–9.3): 68.2% (95%CI: 63.9–72.3) were aware of their diagnosis, 92.2% (95%CI: 88.6–94.7) of those who were aware were undergoing drug treatments, and, of these, 35.8% (95%CI: 30.5–41.6) had controlled HbA1c levels. The proportions of DM awareness, control, and treatment were lower in men aged 18 to 39 years, individuals with low education, without health insurance, and beneficiaries of the Bolsa Família program. CONCLUSION: Approximately one in ten Brazilians has DM. A little more than half of this population is aware of their diagnosis, a condition measured by HbA1c dosage and clinical diagnosis. Among those who know, the vast majority are undergoing drug treatments. However, less than half of these have their HbA1c levels controlled. Worse scenarios were found in subgroups with high social vulnerability.