DIABETES AND THE RISK OF SUFFERING CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES: A TWO-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is considered as the most common disease caused by metabolic disorders. Today, diabetes is one of the most important health and socio-economic problems in the world and has many complications such as blindness, nephropathy, neuropathy, and cardiovascular disease. Complications of diabetes, while imposing high costs on the individual and society, lead to increased mortality in the affected population. Patients with diabetes are 2 to 8 times more likely to have heart problems than non-diabetics. Therefore, this retrospective study was conducted to determine the risk of Suffering cardiovascular diseases in diabetes. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study was retrospective.1257 patients with diagnosis and history of diabetes among all 19995 patients referring to Khatam-ol-Anbia Hospital in Shoushtar during 2015-2016. And the required information was collected through a researcher-made checklist from the records. Data were entered into SPSS software version 17 and analyzed by descriptive statistics, analytical tests and significance level of P <0.05. Results: The sample consisted of 1257 individuals with type 1 and type 2 diabetes with an average age of 58.6 ± 17.6. The prevalence of heart problems in diabetic patients was 39.7% (499 cases). Persons with weaker economic status, married, women, type 2 diabetics, unemployed and housewives, and those with lower literacy were significantly more likely to suffer from heart problems than others (P <0.0001). The results of the Mann-Whitney test showed a statistically significant relationship between cardiovascular problems, blood glucose and age (P <0.05). Conclusion: Due to the high prevalence of heart problems in diabetic patients in this study, it has been shown that cardiovascular risk factors in diabetic patients are always problematic. Therefore, it is essential to control blood glucose and other cardiovascular risk factors to reduce complications and prevent their progression. Also, the need for a more educative class and education through mass media to increase the level of education of these patients and to reduce cardiovascular risk factors in diabetic patients seems necessary.