Background: No previous study was done to estimate the
prevalence of diabetic neuropathy (DN) in Arabic countries.
The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of DN
and its characteristics in Qena governorate. Material and
Methods: This is a random sampling of 10 study areas, involving
9,303 inhabitants; 51.1% men and 48.9% women
were recruited. There were 57.3% urban residents and 42.7%
rural residents. Patients were diagnosed using a screening
questionnaire for diabetes mellitus (DM) as well as for DN in
addition to measuring blood sugar in suspected cases. All
positive cases were referred to Qena University Hospital and
were subjected to full clinical, electrophysiological and laboratory
investigations. Results: Out of 9,303 people screened,
837 were diabetic giving prevalence 8.99% of the population.
Eight hundred eleven had type II DM and 26 cases had
type I giving prevalence of 8.7 and 0.3%, respectively. One
hundred fifty-five out of 837 (18.5%) diabetic patients had
evidence of DN with prevalence rate being 1.7% of the total