Aim: To assess the socio-economic status of patients with diabetes mellitus attending the diabetic clinic of the Enugu State University Teaching Hospital (ESUTH), Enugu South East Nigeria.

Method: A total of 450 patients with diabetes mellitus who were attending the diabetic clinic of the ESUTH in Enugu were studied over a six months period. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from them. The questionnaire was designed to get demographic and socioeconomic data.

Results: Out of the total of 450patients used for the study, 50.5% of them were males. The greatest percentage of them (39.5%) was above the age of 61years. The greatest percentage (38%) of them had an average monthly income of N21,000 to N50,000. About 42.2% of the patients said they do not receive any form of financial assistance from their employers to help them in their treatment. 33.3% receive a financial assistance from their employers. The greatest percentage (20.4%) of patients said that the amount of benefit they get from their employers is below N20, 000 per annum while 1.2% receive benefits in excess of N100, 000 per annum. 69.7% of the patients do not receive any benefits at all.

Conclusion: Our results show that the greatest percentage of patients is over the age of 61years which means that they have retired from active service (60years is the retirement age in this country). Their income will be extremely meager. Again the greatest percentage of patients have incomes less than N100,000. Over 66.7% do not receive any financial assistance for their treatment further adding to the already precarious situation and even those who receive assistance get something too small to be meaningful. All these add up to the fact that the diabetic patients who attend the ESUTTH Parklane have very serious issues with getting the money for their treatment and the resultant effect is that most of them do not adhere to their treatment regimen, they default in keeping their hospital appointments and these make the mortality rate and complications due to this chronic disease to be high.