Prevalence of peripheral neuropathy in patients with diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Aims: We aimed to determine pooled prevalence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) in patients with diabetes and to explore the impacts of research variables on prevalence estimates.

Methods: A systematic search was performed in PubMed, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library and Scopus from onset up to July 2018 to identify articles investigating the prevalence of DPN. Random-effects models were used to calculate the pooled prevalence of DPN. The heterogeneity of the study was estimated with the I² statistic. The publication bias was described by Egger's test and funnel plot.

Results: A total of 29 studies with a total of 50,112 participants were included in this meta-analysis. The results showed that the pooled prevalence of DPN was 30% (95% confidence interval, CI 25-34%). The pooled prevalence of DPN among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus was higher than patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (31.5%, 95% CI 24.4-38.6% vs 17.5%, 95% CI 4.8-30.2%). The pooled prevalence of DPN of studies involving a mixed type of diabetes mellitus was 24.8% (95% CI 13.1-36.5%, I²=99.1%).

Conclusions: Medical staff should strengthen the evaluation and diagnosis of DPN. Moreover, they need to teach diabetic patients how to prevent this complication.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus; Diabetic peripheral neuropathy; Meta-analysis; Prevalence.