Survival Analysis of Diabetes Mellitus Patients Using Parametric, Non-Parametric and Semi-Parametric Approaches: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Diabetes is a chronic illness that requires lifelong care to control blood glucose levels and prevent complications. The aim of this study is to model survival probability of diabetic patients who were under follow-up and identify significant risk factors for mortality and morbidity. Recorded hospital data were obtained for a cohort of 462 patients at Yekatit-II Hospital, Ethiopia. The patients have been under follow-up from September 2003 to August 2011. The Parametric, Non-Parametric and Semi-Parametric Survival Models are used to estimate the survival time as well as examine the association between the survival time with different demographic, health and risk behavior variables. The analysis shows that most factors significantly contribute to a shorter survival time of diabetes mellitus patients. These factors include being overweight, alcohol use, tobacco use, complication of diabetes mellitus, patients diagnosed with type I diabetes mellitus, uncontrollable blood pressure, high blood cholesterol level, excess amount of fasting blood sugar level and positive family history of diabetes mellitus. It is therefore recommended that people ought to be cognizant on the burden of these risk factors and well informed about the disease.