Abstract

Author(s): De Albuquerque Melo, Marcela1; Miranda Tassitano, Rafael 2; De Moraes Vasconcelos Petribú, Marina3; Couto Santos, Eduila Maria3; Araújo de Santana, Raquel 4; De Arruda Câmara e Siqueira Campos, Florisbela3

Introduction: Diabetes is a global epidemic that increases the risk of circulatory events and constitutes a considerable challenge to healthcare services.

Objective: Determine levels of high sensitivity C-reactive protein levels and associated factors in patients with diabetes in the municipality of Vitória de Santo Antão, Brazil.

Methods: A population-based, cross-sectional study was conducted from July to October 2011. Socio-demographic, lifestyle, clinical, anthropometric and biochemical variables were analyzed and associations with high sensitivity C-reactive protein levels were determined. Statistical analysis was performed with the aid of the Predictive Analytics Software, version 13.00, with a 5% level of significance.

Results: The sample comprised 409 individuals, 73.1% of whom were female. Age ranged from 20 to 90 years (mean: 61.00 ± 11.62 years) and older adults accounted for the largest proportion of the sample (56.2%). The body mass index demonstrated that 75.2% had excess weight. The waist-to-hip ratio, waistto-height ratio, conicity index and waist circumference revealed obesity rates of 65.4%, 90.27%, 89.0% and 58.4%, respectively. A total of 53.2% had high sensitivity C-reactive protein levels (> 0.3 mg/L). Moreover, sex, level of schooling, fasting blood sugar, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, waist-to-height ratio and waist circumference were significantly associated with inflammation after controlling for confounding variables.

Discussion: The present results suggest that maintaining a fasting blood sugar level below 100 mg/dl and a good HDL-c level as well as avoiding central obesity can have a protective effect against the occurrence of chronic inflammation in patients with diabetes

Conclusion: High sensitivity C-reactive protein levels were high in the majority of patients studied and were associated with the female sex, abdominal obesity, low HDL-c levels, a low level of schooling and high blood sugar levels.