Objectives: To assess the coronary artery risk factors in Ethiopian diabetic patients.
Design: A cross sectional study done on a representative sample of diabetic patients to evaluate the coronary risk factors.
Setting: Hospital-based study.
Subjects: A total of 302 diabetic patients randomly selected from the 3000 regularly attending diabetic patients in the Tikur Anbessa Hospital Diabetes Centre of whom 161(53.3%) were males, 141(46.7%) were females, 140(46.4%) were Type 1 and 162(53.6%) were Type 2.
Outcome measures: Assessment of the coronary risk factors in diabetic patients.
Results: There were 20(6.6%) smokers and no ex-smokers. All smokers were males of whom five (25%) were Type 1 and 15(75%) were Type 2. Hypertension and obesity were found in 64(21.2%) and 69(22.8%) patients respectively. Sixty one (20.2%) patients and 43(14.2%) patients had hypercholesterolaemia and hypertriglyceridaemia respectively.
Conclusion: Our diabetic patients share the risk factors for developing coronary artery disease like any other diabetic patient in the developed countries but at a lower level.