Diabetes mellitus as a risk factor for ischemic stroke: a case control study

Abstract

Background: In developed countries, stroke is the third most common cause of mortality, following cancer and coronary heart disease. The increase risk is often seen in individuals with diabetes and is associated with poorer clinical outcomes (including higher mortality). That’s why assessment of risk factors for stroke are important.Methods: This age and sex matched hospital based case control study assessed the risk factors of ischemic stroke in tertiary care hospital for a period of one year. Sample size was calculated for matched case control (1:1 ratio) by n-master software and came out to be 189 pairs. All patients under WHO case definition were enrolled as cases for study purpose, controls were selected from the same hospital with disease other than stroke. Analysis was conducted through calculation of odd ratio (OR) and confidence internal (CI) by using SPSS 22.0 program. Odds ratio (OR) of risk factor was calculated using bivariate analysis.Results: Results revealed that male: female ratio among the case and control was 2.1:1, mean age of case and control were 58.86±13.03 and 58.21±12.67. Out of 189 Case, 59 (31.2%) were suffering from diabetes, while only 39 (20.6%) controls were having diabetes mellitus. P value was 0.02, which is significant.Conclusions: In the present hospital based case control study, it was found that diabetes mellitus was a significant risk factor among the ischemic stroke patients.