Mohd. Mushtaque Ahmed, Praveen Kumar Malik, Archana Rani, Raman Parashar, Deepali Kaushik
BACKGROUND Our country is unique in a sense that we have largest numbers of diabetics. Tobacco usage and diabetes are major and known risk factors for cerebrovascular disease. To the best of our knowledge, there is no publication or research paper in literature which compares the ill effect of these two deadly evils. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was conducted from the patients’ data who attended Preventive Cardiology Clinic at HAH Centenary Hospital, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, from 2013 to 2015. Non-diabetic patients who had history of smoking, either past or present and those who use smokeless tobacco in any form made the first group. Second group was made by patients who are suffering from DM but never used tobacco in any form. Blood pressure, BMI, waist circumference, and lipid profiles were compared among the two groups. In order to compare quantitatively the disease burdens in the two groups, age and sex adjusted DALY scores for each major disease present in each individual were allotted. RESULTS Total DALY was significantly higher in diabetes in younger age groups (15-49 years). It becomes opposite i.e. higher in tobacco group in the higher age group of 50-59 years. It is still higher, though not significantly in 60-69 and beyond year’s group also. CONCLUSION Although the impact of diabetes on health is earlier in onset as compared to tobacco use, its impact is lesser in later years. This indicates that tobacco is more detrimental to health as compared to DM.
