Alert! A decade of type 2 diabetes shortens life by 3.5 years
FROM THE LANCET – DIABETES AND ENDOCRINOLOGY
Study results: Type 2 diabetes diagnosed at age 30, 40, and 50
Previous studies estimated that adults with type 2 diabetes die 6 years earlier on average in comparison with their counterparts who do not have diabetes, but it was not known how diabetes duration affects life span.
To investigate this, the team analyzed individual records from the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration and the UK Biobank. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality. Other outcomes were deaths from CVD, cancer, and other causes.
Over a median follow-up of 12.5 years, there were 246,670 deaths: 84,443 from cardiovascular causes, 150, 972 from noncardiovascular causes, and 11,255 from unknown/ill-defined causes.
Compared with participants who did not have a history of type 2 diabetes, the hazard ratios for all-cause mortality, adjusted for age and sex, were 2.69 for participants diagnosed at age 30-39, 2.26 for those diagnosed aged 40-49, 1.84 aged 50-59, 1.57 for those aged 60-69, and 1.39 for those diagnosed 70 and older.
These hazard ratios were similar after adjusting for BMI, systolic blood pressure, and total cholesterol, but they were substantially attenuated after further adjusting for fasting glucose or hemoglobin A1c level.
Similar patterns were observed for cause-specific mortality.
“Every decade of earlier diagnosis of diabetes was associated with about 3-4 years of lower life expectancy, highlighting the need to develop and implement interventions that prevent or delay the onset of diabetes and to intensify the treatment of risk factors among young adults diagnosed with diabetes,” the researchers wrote.
The study was funded the British Heart Foundation, the Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health and Care Research, and Health Data Research UK. Dr. Peters is on advisory boards for Vertex, Eli Lilly, and Medscape, receives research funding from Abbott Diabetes Care and Insulet, and has stock options for Omada Health.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
