Research Article Determinants of Diabetic Nephropathy among Diabetic Patients in General Public Hospitals of Tigray, Ethiopia, 2018/19 Teklewoini Mariye Zemicheal , 1 Degena Bahrey Tadesse, 1 Hagos Tasew Atalay , 2 GirmayTeklayWeldesamuel, 2 GebrewahdBezabhGebremichael, 3 HabenNuguseTesfay, 4 and Teklehaimanot Gereziher Haile 5 1 Department of Adult Health Nursing, School of Nursing, College of Health Science and Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Aksum University, Tigray, Ethiopia 2 Department of Pediatric Nursing, School of Nursing, College of Health Science and Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Aksum University, Tigray, Ethiopia 3 Department of Adult Health Nursing, School of Nursing, College of Health Science and Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Mekelle University, Mek’ele, Ethiopia 4 Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, College of Health Science and Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Aksum University, Tigray, Ethiopia 5 Department of Maternity and Child Health Nursing, School of Nursing, College of Health Science and Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Aksum University, Tigray, Ethiopia Correspondence should be addressed to Teklewoini Mariye Zemicheal; teklewoini1@gmail.com Received 3 March 2020; Revised 29 June 2020; Accepted 13 September 2020; Published 21 September 2020 Academic Editor: Franco Veglio Copyright © 2020 Teklewoini Mariye Zemicheal et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Diabetic nephropathy is real damage resulting from having uncontrolled diabetes mellitus. Unmanaged diabetic nephropathy is one of the most leading causes of kidney failure. ere is a scarcity of information on the determinants of diabetic nephropathy among diabetes mellitus patients in Ethiopia. Identification of the determinants can help devise a strategy to properly address the disease and its consequences. erefore, this study was designed to assess the determinants of diabetic nephropathy among diabetes mellitus patients. Methods. Unmatched case-control study design with 168 cases and 672 controls with a mean age of 45.18 and 62.12, respectively, participated in the study. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was employed for data collection, and a systematic sampling technique was used to select the study participants. Data were entered into Epi data and exported to SPSS for data clarification and analysis. Binary logistic regression analysis was carried out to check the level of association between diabetic nephropathy and the independent variables. Results. Comorbidity (AOR: 4.96 at 95 CI: 1.77–13.87), hypertension (AOR: 6.33, 95% CI: 2.51–16.02), poor glycemic control (AOR: 3.27, 95% CI: 1.31, 8.21), age (AOR: 1.14, 95%: 1.09–1.19), duration with diabetes mellitus since diagnosis (AOR: 1.83, 95 CI: 1.62–2.06), and nonadherence to diabetic medication (AOR: 3.3, 95% CI: 1.34, 8.15), diet (AOR: 5.96, 95%: 1.92–18.54), and exercise (AOR: 5.60, 95% CI: 1.94–16.21) were the determinants of diabetic nephropathy. Conclusion. Adherence to medication, diet, and exercise should be empowered to achieve glycemic control and to prevent diabetic nephropathy. More attention has to be also given for old aged diabetic patients, long duration since diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and other comorbidities. 1. Introduction Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a clinical syndrome charac- terized by persistent microalbuminuria in concomitance with diabetes mellitus. It is diagnosed by the persistent increment of albumin or protein in urine when there is no other known renal disease [1, 2]. It is a microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus characterized by persistent proteinuria, decreased glomerular filtration rate, and in- creased blood pressure [3]. Diabetic nephropathy typically develops after diabetes durationof10years,oratleast5yearswithtype1diabetes Hindawi International Journal of Endocrinology Volume 2020, Article ID 6396483, 8 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/6396483