Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Smoking is considered to be a cardiovascular risk for diabetic patients, as for the overall population. Its presence in diabetic patients increases significantly the risk of micro and macro vascular diseases. This study purpose is to compare and analyze the occurrence rate of degenerative complications in diabetic patients who smoke and those who don’t.

Materials and methods: It is a descriptive and comparative study carried out in the Endocrinology-Diabetology-Nutrition Department of Oujda’s Mohammed VI University Hospital Center in Morocco. The study population included 66 diabetic patients divided into 2 groups: smokers and non-smokers.

Results: The study population consisted of male patients only. Among the patients, 20 were smokers (30.4%) while the other 46 were not (69.6%). The mean age of the participants was 56.5 years for smokers versus 62.5 years for non-smokers. The average duration of diabetes was 11.25 years for diabetic patients who smoke versus 12.23 years for those who don’t. Mean HbA1c value was at 8.05% for smokers compared to 7.83% for non-smokers. The macro vascular diseases included: myocardial infarction in 61.2% of smoking patients versus 55.5% of non-smoking patients (P=0.055), peripheral arterial disease in 12.3% of smokers versus 11.1% of non-smokers (P=0.820) and stroke in 10.4% of smokers versus 5.6% of non-smokers (P=0.09). Diabetic retinopathy was found in 55% of smokers and 22.2% of non-smokers (P=0.302). Diabetic smoking patients were more likely and significantly to develop a diabetic kidney disease (P=0.05). 13.4% of smoking diabetic patients experienced diabetic neuropathy versus 11.1% of non-smoking patients (P=0.212).

Conclusions: Smoking is, together with diabetes mellitus, one of the main risk factors of insulin resistance and degenerative complications. Smoking cessation is of vital importance for management of diabetes, because it improves glycemic control and prevents the development of degenerative complications.