Prevalence of Aspirin Use among Type 2 Diabetic Patients in Iran

Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) have a markedly increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. There are some recommendations for prescription of aspirin in these patients. Our purpose was to determine aspirin usage rate in diabetic patients and to compare it in different ages and based upon cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. In this study we collected data from 1256 self-reported diabetes mellitus patients referred to Yazd Diabetes Research Center during 2010-2011. This data included age, sex, history of diabetes mellitus, drug history, antiplatelet therapy duration, smoking, hypertension, dyslipidemia, family history of premature CVD and albuminuria. 48.5% of patients were male (609 patients) and 51.5% were female (647 patients). From female patients ≤60 years old, 52.7% used antiplatelet drug; however, this percent for patients over 60 years was 58.9% and for male patients ≤50 and >50 was 47.7% and 81%, respectively. From antiplatelet drug users, 43.1% of males aged ≤50 and 29.2% of females aged ≤60 years old had no or one risk factor that is unnecessary to take it. Physician must encourage diabetic patients to use aspirin when the potential benefit of a reduction in cardiovascular disease outweighs the potential harms. So, clinical judgment is required for prescription of aspirin in men aged ≤ 50 years and women aged ≤ 60 years without multiple risk factors.