The Prevalence of Diabetic Distal Sensory Neuropathy in an English Community

The prevalence of lower limb neuropathy was determined in a known diabetic population. From a general population of 97034 subjects, a total of 1150 diabetic patients were identified of whom 1077 (93.7%) were reviewed. Neuropathy was defined as symptoms plus one abnormal physical finding, or two abnormal physical findings. An age‐ and sex‐matched non‐diabetic control group of 480 individuals was also examined by the same single observer. The prevalence of neuropathy was 16.3 (95% CI 14.6–19.0)% in diabetic patients and 2.9 (95% CI 1.4–4.4)% in non‐diabetic subjects, yielding a prevalence odds of 6.75 (95% CI 3.87–11.79), p < 0.001. In Type 1 diabetes, the prevalence was 12.7 (95% CI 8.0–17.6)% and in Type 2 diabetes 17.2 (95% CI 15.9–18.5)%. After adjusting for age, the difference was not significant (odds ratio (OR) 1.60 (95% CI 0.95–2.76)). The prevalence of neuropathy increased with age in diabetic and non‐diabetic subjects. Multiple logistic regression analysis of selected (variables revealed that height (OR per cm 1.06 (95% CI 1.00–1.13), p < 0.05) and retinopathy (OR 9.00 (95% CI 7.72–10.30), p < 0.001) in Type 1 diabetes and age (OR per year 1.02 (95% CI 1.00–1.05)), height (OR per cm 1.06 (95% CI 1.03–1.08), p < 0.001),) alcohol intake (OR per unit of alcohol consumed per week 1.03 (95% CI 1.00–1.05), p = 0.005), HbA 1 (OR per 1% 1.21 (95% CI 1.08–1.35), p = 0.005), and any retinopathy (OR 2.14 (95% CI 1.67–2.62), p = 0.002) in Type 2 diabetes were significant predictors of neuropathy. The prevalence of neuropathy increased with the duration of diabetes but an independent association was not found for either type of diabetes.