Background: India, now designated as diabetes capital of the world, is facing a serious threat from this pandemic. General awareness about the risk factors precipitating this illness is the need of the hour.
Objective: To analyze the effect of cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and total energy consumption among middle-aged male diabetic patients and compare it with healthy middle-aged men.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was done among 100 middle-aged men, 50 diabetic patients without complication or other comorbidities and 50 healthy individuals aged between 30 and 50 years, regarding their cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and total calorie intake. Comparison was done among the two groups.
Result: There was a significant association between cigarette smoking and diabetes (p = 0.026). There was an increased association between occasional alcohol consumption among nondiabetic subjects (22%) when compared with diabetic patients (12%), but it was not statistically significant. Moreover, total energy consumption was significantly higher among diabetic patients (1,392 kcal/day) when compared with nondiabetic subjects (1,062 kcal/day).
Conclusion: Cigarette smoking was found to be a significant risk factor for diabetes. In addition, increased energy consumption worsened the diabetes. Alteration in lifestyle, inculcating healthy eating practices, cessation of smoking, and routine physical activity should be stressed to the general public. Only then, it is possible to contain this pandemic.
Key words: Alcohol consumption, diabetes mellitus, smoking, total energy consumption
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