Twinamatsiko Lezi’s scientific contributions

Purpose: To determine the morphological classification, associated factors and prevalence of anaemia among T2DM patients at Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital, Southwestern Uganda. Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled 230 T2DM patients, 60 (26.1%) males and 170 (73.9%) females. The socio-demographic characteristics were collected using structured questionnaires, 4ml of venous blood was collected from each study participant into an EDTA vacutainer. The random blood sugar level of each participant was measured using a OneTouch glucometer and recorded. The blood samples were then transported to the central laboratory for Complete Blood Counts using a SYSMEX XN 550 haematology analyser. Thin smears were made for participants who had low Hb (<12.0 g/dl for females and <13.0 g/dl for males) according to the WHO definition of anaemia. The thin films were fixed with absolute methanol and stained using May–Grünwald Giemsa stain then dried and examined for the morphological types of anaemia using ×1000 magnification. Results: The overall prevalence of anaemia in T2DM in this study was 8.3%. Anaemia was equally distributed among males and females (8.3% and 8.2% respectively). As far as morphological types of anaemia are concerned, normocytic normochromic anaemia was more prevalent, 12 (63.2%) followed by normocytic hypochromic, 3 (15.8%), microcytic normochromic, 2 (10.5%) and microcytic hypochromic, 2 (10.5%). The factors which were associated with anaemia were level of education (AOR 4.2, p-value 0.174) and age 50 years and above (AOR: 1.2, p-value 0.712). However, they were not statistically significant; p-value > 0.05. Conclusion: The prevalence of anaemia in T2DM in this study was low compared to other studies done within the country. Normocytic normochromic was the commonest type of anaemia and low level of education and age 50 years and above were associated with anaemia.