Diabetes and obesity in the eastern Morocco

The objective of this research is to describe the current situation (frequencies) of obesity and diabetes mellitus (DM) and their relationship in Oujda capital of eastern Morocco and its regions, and to investigate the influences of milieu, sex and age. A sample of 1,628 individuals at least 40 years old was formed by voluntary participation using convenience sampling through 26 campaigns in urban and rural areas in late 2008. The proportion in the total sample was globally 10.2% for DM, 8.1% for impaired fasting glucose (IFG), 25.1% for obesity and 40.3% for overweight. The relative frequency of DM was slightly higher in women than in men (10.7% vs. 9.3%, not significant (NS)); for IFG it was respectively 8.7% versus 7.01% (NS). The relative frequency of DM was 1.34 times higher in urban (10.9%) than in rural areas (7.9%, P < 0.05). It was also more elevated in obese subjects (15.9%) than in normal ones (9.7%, P < 0.001). Obesity proportion was markedly greater in women (32.7%) than in men (11.5%, P < 0.001). Obesity and overweight were more frequent in urban populations than in rural ones. In conclusion, our results show an alarming increasing trend in the current situation and frequencies of DM, obesity and overweight in the capital of eastern Morocco and its regions, especially for women in urban area.