Background: The Samoan community has the largest Pacific Island population in Australia with a large majority living in the western suburbs of Sydney. This population experiences some of the highest rates of diabetes, obesity and other lifestyle related conditions. Despite this high prevalence, little detail is known about the health status of Samoans in western Sydney. In this study we aimed to describe the prevalence of diabetes, pre-diabetes, its complications and risk factors among Samoans in a western Sydney general practice.
Methods: Through one western Sydney general practice we obtained extracted and anonymised medical records of 403 Samoan participants (n=403), 335 did not have diabetes (n=335), 68 patients were identified with having the Diabetes condition (n=68). Extracted data was analysed to identify risk factors among patients and to serve as baseline data. Risk factors included Blood pressure, Blood Glucose Levels (fasting and random), BMI, Total Cholesterol, LDL, HDL, Triglycerides, Hypertension, Hyperlipidaemia, Creatinine and Albumin Ratio, neuropathy, renopathy, and attendance in the last 2 years.
Results: Our Results showed a high prevalence of obesity, blood pressure and blood sugar levels within the 2 groups; in the control group (n=335), 54% were considered obese with the average BMI being 31.1kg/m2 with 16.8% with Hypertension. The data of those with diabetes (n=68) revealed 89.7% had type 2 Diabetes with an average BP of 139/83 mmHg, BMI of 37kg/m2, HbA1c levels of 64 mmol/mol, 83.8% had Hypertension, 64.7% had Hyperlipidaemia, 55.6% had an abnormal Creatinine:Albumin ratio levels and 25.4% had HbA1c levels under 55 mmol/mol.
Conclusions: Our data identifies the current health condition of the Samoan community and reveals the need for development of specific intervention strategies for this ethnic group. From this study a full scale evaluation of current diabetes prevention strategies towards ethnic communities needs to be undertaken along with further research on the contributing factors towards the high prevalence of obesity and diabetes risk factors.