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Diabetes, CVD increase rates of CV events
Among adults with diabetes, paying extra attention to traditional cardiovascular risk factors could reduce the rates of cardiovascular events and mortality, according to study findings published in Diabetes Care.
Gabriela Vazquez-Benitez, PhD, MSc, of the HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research in Minneapolis, and colleagues evaluated data from a network of 11 U.S. integrated health care organizations on 859,617 adults with diabetes with or without CV disease who were enrolled for more than 6 months from 2005 to 2011 to determine the incidence of major CV events and all-cause mortality.
Gabriela Vazquez-Benitez
Risk factors included inadequately controlled HbA1c (≥ 7%), high LDL cholesterol (≥ 100 mg/dL), high blood pressure (≥ 140 mm Hg/90 mm Hg) or smoking.
There was a higher risk for myocardial infarction/acute coronary syndrome (ACS), stroke and heart failure related to all inadequately controlled risk factors among adults without CVD. Smoking and BP were the only risk factors associated with all-cause mortality in this group. Among participants with baseline CVD, all inadequately controlled risk factors were associated with MI/ACS and stroke, whereas an increase in heart failure risk was associated with current smoking, BP and HbA1c. Smoking was the only risk factor associated with all-cause mortality in this group. Participants with diabetes and CVD had higher 5-year CV event rates per 100 person-years compared with participants with diabetes but no CVD for MI/ACS (6 vs. 1.7), stroke (5.3 vs. 1.5), heart failure (8.4 vs. 1.2), any CV event (18.1 vs. 4) and all-cause mortality (23.5 vs. 5).
“My message to providers is to work with their patients to incorporate them in the care decision process,” Vazquez-Benitez told Endocrine Today. “Management of these risk factors is important to improve health but it can be better achieved in a patient-centered approach where patients are aware of the risk, and the different options to reduce their risk factors. This can include regular visits, screening, laboratory, weight and blood pressure. There is also a message for the health care system, and it is worth investing in processes to provide care that targets modifiable risk factors.” – by Amber Cox
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.