Background & Objectives: Diabetes mellitus contains a group of common metabolic disorders that induces problems in health status. Its prevalence is increasing in the world, due to increase the rate of obesity and decrease in physical activities. This study was done to evaluate incidence of diabetes and prevalence in rural areas of Kalaleh city(North of Iran).

Materials & Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study all persons over 30 years old were enrolled, according to diagnosis of diabetes before 2005 or diagnosis in the screening programs (with FPG>126 in two turns) in rural areas of Kalaleh during 2005-06. After collection of demographic data with questionnaires and laboratory findings, they were entered to computer with SPSS-15 software. Central and distributive indices and incidence & prevalence of diabetes were assumed according to the whole population.

Results: In this study, 394 cases were enrolled. Incidence and prevalence of diabetes was 0.6% and 1.13%, respectively. Mean age of cases was 51.61 years. Male to female ratio was 0.4. Mean BMI was 29.43 kg/m² and a significant difference was seen between two gender (P<0.05). Most of the cases were Turkmen (72.8%). Illiterates were the major group (77.2%) and 1.8% had diploma or higher educational levels.

Conclusion: Prevalence and incidence of diabetes was lower than the other area of Iran.