POTENTIALLY MODIFIABLE METABOLIC FACTORS AND THE RISK OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE HOSPITALIZATIONS IN URBAN AFRICAN AMERICANS WITH DIABETES Objective: Diabetes and cardiovascular dis-

ease (CVD) are frequent causes of hospitaliza-tion in African Americans but have rarely been studied as coexisting diagnoses. We analyzed data from an urban African American diabetes patient population to identify variables associ-ated with CVD hospitalizations. Design: Demographic, disease, and metabolic characteristics of patients seen from 1991 to 1997 were extracted from an electronic patient tracking system. Data were linked to a statewide hospital discharge dataset to establish who was hospitalized between 1998 and 2001. Patients with a CVD hospitalization were compared to patients without a CVD hospitalization. Results: 3397 diabetes patients (average age, 56 years; 65 % women; 92 % African American) were included in the analysis; 24 % had hospitalizations primarily due to CVD. Persons with CVD hospitalizations were older and had diabetes longer, and fewer were women. Mean systolic blood pressure (SBP), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, triglycer-ide, and total cholesterol levels and urinary albumin/creatinine ratio were all higher among persons with CVD hospitalizations. In adjusted analyses, women had lower odds of experi-encing a CVD hospitalization, but advancing age, diabetes duration, SBP, and LDL choles-terol were all associated with greater odds. Conclusions: In this predominantly African American patient sample with diabetes, spe-cific factors (age, sex, diabetes duration, LDL cholesterol, SBP) were associated with CVD hospitalizations. Additional studies are needed to determine whether management of meta-bolic risk factors in outpatient settings will translate into lower hospitalization rates due t