Age and General Characteristic Effect on Iraqi Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

The study aimed to investigate the cardiovascular risk factors in Iraqi diabetic patients. Two hundred and ninty nine randomly recruited type 2 diabetic attending the National Diabetes Center/ Al-mustansiriya University for the period (October to December). They were categorised in regard to age, duration of diabetes, smoking, socioeconomic status, anthropometric indices, blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, glycated hemoglobin A1c, serum lipids and medication used during this period. Duration of diabetes, diastolic blood pressure, glycated hemoglobin A1c, fasting plasma glucose, serum lipids, number of hypercholesterolemic patients, the number of patients having unfavorable total cholesterol/high density lipoprotein HDL ratio (>= 5) were all significantly higher in the older diabetics. younger diabetic males were distinguished by a larger number of hypertensive patients, higher level of systolic blood pressure, higher means of body mass index, total cholesterol andlow density lipoprotein LDL, and larger number of patients having low HDL-C (<1 mmol/L). The older diabetic males were distinct by a large number of smokers, number of smoked cigarettes/day, Smoking index (PYI) and longer duration of smoking. All parameters ranged between p<0.05 and p<0.005. the data showed that cardiovascular risk factors were significantly higher among older type 2 diabetics (>60 years), particularly females.