Burden of cardiovascular disease risk factors among subjects with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Southeastern Nigeria

Diabetes is associated with a high degree of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The co-existence of other cardiovascular risk factors alongside diabetes confers the cumulative risk of adverse outcomes. The prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors has been rising in sub-Saharan Africa, but their degree of co-existence with diabetes is not well known. The objective of this study was to determine the burden of cardiovascular risk factors in patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) in a urban southeastern Nigerian population. This was a cross-sectional study consisting of consecutively recruited diabetic patients aged ≥40 years attending the diabetes clinic at Enugu State University of Science and Technology Teaching Hospital (ESUTH). Five cardiovascular risk factors were evaluated: Hypertension, overweight/obesity, cigarette smoking, physical inactivity, and poor glycemic control We studied 410 T2DM patients (31.5% male) with a mean age of 58.9 years and a mean duration of diabetes of 7.4 years. The most prevalent cardiovascular risk factor in the study was physical inactivity (69.5%), and 80.1% of respondents had 2 or more risk factors. Females had a significantly higher prevalence of physical inactivity, overweight/obesity, and poor glycemic control when compared to males (73% vs 62%; 73.3% vs 58.9%; 72.2% vs 60.5%, respectively). Our study has shown a high burden of cardiovascular risk factors in diabetic patients in an urban southeastern Nigerian population. Female diabetic subjects had a significantly higher prevalence of most of the cardiovascular risk factors except for smoking.