Introduction:

Diabetes mellitus is a complex chronic disease that requires continuous medical care with multifactorial strategies.

Objective:

To describe the clinical, epidemiological and biochemical characteristics of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus without pharmacological treatment.

Methods:

A cross-sectional, descriptive and observational study was carried out with 92 type 2 diabetic patients without pharmacological treatment belonging to Ramón López Peña polyclinic, of Santiago de Cuba, in the period from January 2017 to March 2019. Frequency distributions of quantitative (mean and standard deviation) and qualitative (number of cases and percentage) variables were determined.

Results:

Of the 92 patients, 70.7% were female and 29.3% were male, with a mean age of 50.98 ± 9.29 years, and a mean time of evolution of diabetes mellitus of 4.77 ± 2.88 years. The body mass index was 29.85 kg/m2, the abdominal circumference in men was 101.03 cm and 99.05 cm in women. The homeostasis model of assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) presented an average of 2.94. Mean blood glucose was 6.81 mmol/L for fasting and 13.11 mmol/L in the postprandial; while cholesterol was 4.92 mmol/L, high-density and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol values were 1.0 mmol/L and 2.51 mmol/L, respectively, and triglycerides showed a value of 2.40 mmol/L. Arterial hypertension and moderate global cardiovascular risk prevailed in 55.4% and 36.7%, respectively.

Conclusion:

The prevalence of excess malnutrition, insulin resistance, poor metabolic control, atherogenic lipid disorders, arterial hypertension and moderate global cardiovascular risk in patients with type 2 diabetes without pharmacological treatment indicates the need for metformin treatment from diagnosis.

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