Objective

To determine the risk of diabetes mellitus according to FINDRISC in Warao indigenous of Barrancas del Orinoco, Monagas, Venezuela.

Methodology

An observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out in December 2015. Universe was conformed by 213 natives and sample conformed by 103 individuals. Patients without diagnosis of diabetes and older than 12 years were included. The FINDRISC survey was applied. The data were grouped and processed by means of the statistical program SPSS, the statistical test of chi-square of homogeneity was applied and a value of p<0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

Results

Of 103 patients included in the study, 57 were female and 46 were male. By sex, the risk of diabetes with a score lower than 7 (mild) was more frequent in men (63.0%), the score of 12-14 (moderate risk) was similar in both sexes, with no statistically significant differences (p=0.37). The frequency of patients who were 50 years old and more at high risk was 11.1% followed by those aged 30-39 years with 7.7%. The moderate risk (12-14 points) was more frequent in patients aged 40-49 years old with 44.4%, with statistically significant differences being found by age (p<0.00001). In general, the indigenous people of the Warao ethnic group had a high risk of diabetes in 3.88%, the moderate risk was 10.7%, and more than half obtained low risk results with 54.4%.

Conclusion

The indigenous people of the Warao ethnic group have a low risk of diabetes.