Vol.:(0123456789) Wireless Personal Communications https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-020-07552-3 1 3 Microvascular Complications in Type‑2 Diabetes: A Review of Statistical Techniques and Machine Learning Models Nitigya Sambyal 1  · Poonam Saini 1  · Rupali Syal 1 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) has become a serious concern as it contributes to 90% of the total diabetic population. The high glucose levels in diabetic patients result in damage to eyes, kidneys and nerves collectively known as microvascular complications. The paper presents a critical review of existing statistical and machine learning models with respect to such complications namely retinopathy, neuropathy and nephropathy. The statistical tests like chi-square, odds ratio, t-test, ANOVA enables inferential and descriptive analysis. On the other side, machine learning models like support vector machines, k-nearest neighbour, deep neural network, naive bayes also assures predictive analytics. It is worth mention- ing that both analytics can reverse impaired glucose regulation early in its course resulting in the prevention of long-term complications associated with T2D. Despite variation in both analytic techniques, their integration in medical health practices can assist patients to efectively adapt a healthy lifestyle and reduce signifcant healthcare overheads for an indi- vidual’s family as well as society. Keywords Microvascular complications · T2D · Retinopathy · Neuropathy · Nephropathy · Statistical analysis · Machine learning · Deep learning 1 Introduction Diabetes Mellitus (DM) also known as diabetes is the most common metabolic disorder identifed by the presence of high glucose level in the body also known as hyperglycae- mia. It is caused due to many factors like genetic susceptibility, body weight, unhealthy eating habits and sedentary lifestyle etc. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) diabetes is predicted as the seventh lethal disease with its expected count to be increased to 102 million by 2030 [1]. Uncontrolled diabetes can result in numerous car- diovascular diseases afecting vital body organs like nerves, kidney, eyes, foot, skin etc. Some of the major symptoms of DM are blurry vision, extreme hunger, slow healing cuts frequent urination, numbness in hands and feet, extreme fatigue, excessive thirst * Nitigya Sambyal sambyal.nitigya@gmail.com 1 Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, India